Markets |
Wall Street ends down; utilities fall as bond yields jump
DJ: 18,011.94 -28.43 NAS: 5,076.52
-6.41 S&P: 2,109.60
-2.13
REUTERS/BRENDAN
MCDERMID
U.S. stocks eased on Tuesday as a jump in bond yields hit
utilities and other top dividend payers, but energy gains and optimism Greece is near a deal with
creditors limited losses.
The S&P utility index .SPLRCU fell 1.4 percent, leading
losses among S&P sectors, after U.S. long-dated Treasury debt yields rose
to two-week highs. Utilities and other dividend paying shares tend to compete
with bonds as investments.
Energy shares gained along with oil prices. The S&P energy
index .SPNY rose 0.5 percent, leading the day's gainers.
"Today the utilities are way underperforming, obviously because people are
thinking rates are going to go up sooner rather than later," said Uri
Landesman, president of Platinum Partners in New York.
Greece's creditors
drafted the broad lines of an agreement to put to the leftist government in
Athens in a bid to conclude four months of acrimonious negotiations and unlock
aid.
"I don't think Greece is going to be the thing that upsets
this market," Landesman said.
The Dow Jones industrial
average .DJI fell 28.43 points, or 0.16 percent, to
18,011.94, theS&P 500 .SPX lost 2.13 points, or 0.1 percent, to
2,109.6 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXICdropped 6.40 points, or 0.13 percent, to 5,076.52.
Shares of Macy's (M.N) rose
2.5 percent to $68.49. Reuters reported several hedge funds have asked the U.S.
department store company to consider options for its real estate, including
selling some major sites and then leasing them back.
Other gainers included shares of General Motors (GM.N), up
0.1 percent to $36.22, after it forecast U.S. industry sales to finish May at
the strongest pace since January 2006.
Worries about when
the Federal Reserve will bump
up interest rates added to caution in the market. Fed board member Lael
Brainard said the economy's
recent poor performance may be more than transitory, as the full impact
of weak consumer spending, low investment and the strong dollar become
apparent.
Shares of steel companies gained, with U.S. Steel (X.N) up
7.9 percent at $25.78 in its biggest daily percentage gain since January.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1,648
to 1,385, for a 1.19-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 1,594
issues rose and 1,149 fell for a 1.39-to-1 ratio favoring advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 3 new 52-week highs and 1 new
lows; the Nasdaq recorded 93 new highs and 42 new lows.
About 5.5
billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, below the 6.3 billion
daily average for the last five sessions, according to BATS Global Markets.
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