Shares on Wall Street fell on Mon, as the 10-year Treasury yields jumped. Tech stocks continued to take the biggest hit from higher rates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 413.04 pts, or 1.19%, to close at 34,308.08. The broader S&P 500 index fell 1.69%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite retreated 2.18%. The small cap Russell 2000 dropped 0.71%.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note notched up 8.01 basis points (bps) to 2.7801%, the highest since Dec 2018. The US dollar firmed for an eighth day. The ICE dollar index (DXY), which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of rivals, rose 0.14% to 99.932.
Oil futures fell on concerns that Covid lockdowns in China would depress global demand. The front-month Brent and WTI futures closed down $4.30 at US$98.48/bbl and $3.97 cents at US$94.29/bbl respectively.
Megacap tech stocks were lower including Microsoft (MSFT US, -3.94%), Alphabet (GOOGL US, -3.35%), Apple (AAPL US, -2.55%), Meta Platforms (FB US, -2.64%) and Amazon (AMZN US, -2.16%). AT&T (T US, +7.74%) shares surged, adjusted for the spinoff of its WarnerMedia business to Discovery.
AT&T shareholders now own 71% of the combined group, Warner Bros Discovery (WBD US, +1.27%).
Shares of Twitter (TWTR US, +1.69%) rose on Mon after the social media firm said Elon Musk has decided not to join its board. Staying off the board makes it easier for Musk to buy more stock (or sell shares).
China approved new video game licenses for the first time since Jul. The regulator licensed 45 titles from publishers including Baidu (BIDU US, -1.27%), XD and iDreamSky (1119 HK, -5.24%). Titles from NetEase (NTES US, +2.12%) and Tencent (TCEHY US, +0.5%) were noticeably absent from the list.
The most actively traded US gold futures (Jun) contract settled up $2.60, or 0.1%, at US$1,948.20/oz. May silver, which is the most actively traded silver futures, rose 16.4 cents, or 0.7%, to end at US$24.987/oz.
Cryptocurrency-linked stocks declined as Bitcoin briefly slips back below the US$41,000 level. Coinbase (COIN US) shares fell 4.39%.