A slightly downbeat day for US stocks morphed into something considerably worse this afternoon, when spiking bond yields in the wake of a poorly-received Treasury auction accentuated the slide in stocks.
The S&P 500 fell 1.6%, the Nasdaq 100 gave back 1.3%, and the Russell 2000 dropped 2.8%.
Every S&P 500 sector ETF fell at least 1% except for communication services, with consumer discretionary, financials, healthcare, and real estate all off more than 2%.
The S&P 500’s advance-decline line was lopsided: the number of fallers outnumbered risers by 467. That’s the worst reading this year outside of April 4, when markets were reeling at the end of the week that featured the Rose Garden reciprocal tariff announcement.
Declines were led by credit scoring giant Fair Issac, AES, and Moderna. Meanwhile, Google led gains on the day, up nearly 3% after analysts were charmed with the company’s developer conference yesterday, which laid out big plans for its Gemini AI.
L3Harris Tech jumped as much as 3% before closing up 0.8% after Indiana Senator Jim Banks said the company would work on a $175 billion missile defense system.
AI cloud firm CoreWeave also bucked the broader sell-off, jumping 19% and breaking above the $100 mark for the first time as traders piled into bullish call options.
UnitedHealth fell nearly 6% after a report that alleged it coordinated with nursing homes to reduce hospitalizations.
Target shares dropped over 5% after the retailer said it would raise prices following an earnings report that missed Q1 estimates and slashed its full-year outlook.
Take-Two dipped 4.5% after the “Grand Theft Auto” parent announcing plans to sell $1 billion of new stock.
VF Corp shares tumbled nearly 16% after the Vans and North Face parent posted disappointing Q4 results and a gloomy forecast.
