NEW YORK (AP) – Stock prices were lower Tuesday at noon on the New York Stock Exchange due to poor performance by tech companies, pushing the indices away from recent records.
Markets have been turbulent in recent weeks as investors are pondering how the US economy recovers from the pandemic, and how the Federal Reserve is managing its policy of keeping interest rates near zero. The US central bank is meeting on Tuesday and will publish its conclusions on Wednesday.
The S&P 500 index fell 0.7% while the Dow Jones industrial average lost 147 units (0.4%) to 34,996 and the Nasdaq technology lost 1.7%.
Those that fell the most were technology companies and those of everyday consumer products: Microsoft lost 1.5% and Apple fell 1.4%.
Investors moved their money to less risky sectors, such as collective use services and manufacturers of household or personal products.
The yield on 10-year US Treasuries fell from 1.27% to 1.24%.
Investors examined the financial reports of large companies: UPS fell 8.5% while Tesla contracted 2.9% and 3M fell 1%.
Markets were also down in China, where government crackdowns on tech companies are driving investors away. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng market was down 4.2% and Shanghai’s was down 2.5%.