(Updates to afternoon trading)
* Tech stocks fall as 10-year yields touch 14-month high
* Banks, industrial stocks gain
* Indexes down: Dow 0.3%, S&P 500 0.3%, Nasdaq 0.3%
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, March 30 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks were down slightly in afternoon trading on Tuesday, with investors selling tech-related growth shares as U.S. Treasury yields hit a 14-month high.
At the same time, S&P 500 financials, industrials and consumer discretionary rose, extending the recent rotation out of growth and into so-called value names.
Shares of Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com all were lower.
The Nasdaq was on track for its first monthly loss since November following the recent rise in Treasury yields. Tech stocks, which have a low-rate environment heavily baked in to their high valuations, have been among the hardest hit by the rise in yields.
“Investor preferences are flipping around here almost on a daily basis, primarily between tech plus and cyclicals,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York, New York.
“Cyclicals have certainly had the upper hand here for a while, trading off the reopening of the economy.”
The benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield hit a 14-month high as big banks shed debt holdings ahead of a March 31 regulatory change.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 91.44 points, or 0.28%, to 33,079.93, the S&P 500 lost 13.58 points, or 0.34%, to 3,957.51 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 32.37 points, or 0.25%, to 13,027.28.
The Russell 2000 value index added about 0.1%, outperforming the Russell 2000 growth index, which shed about 0.6% in a continuation of a trend since late last year.
“For the next day or two, (value stocks) will probably be leaders because we have quarter-end and institutions want to make sure that they have exposure to the names that performed well,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth in New York.
Bets on a swift economic rebound backed by vaccine rollouts and unprecedented stimulus helped the S&P 500 and the Dow notch record closing highs last week, while the Nasdaq is still below its all-time closing high from February.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden will unveil more details about the first stage of his infrastructure plan, which could be worth as much as $4 trillion.
Bank stocks rebounded as investors took heart from signs that the impact from the fall of a U.S. hedge fund did not ripple out to broader markets.
Wells Fargo & Co jumped after the lender said it had a prime brokerage relationship with Archegos Capital and that it no longer had any exposure and did not experience any losses.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.30-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.30-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 29 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 40 new highs and 71 new lows. (Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch in New York Additional reporting by Devik Jain and Medha Singh in Bengaluru Editing by Maju Samuel and Matthew Lewis)
