TECH SHARES RETREAT, CRUDE OIL DECLINES

Technology shares declined from the highest levels of the day as investors continued to shift between growth and value stocks while gauging the strength of the global economic recovery, Lu Wang and Vildana Hajric reported for Bloomberg News early on March 17, 2021.

Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. briefly led the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 to a two-week high, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell from a record high, with Boeing Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. among the biggest decliners.

The benchmark S&P 500 was little changed as the debate on the so-called reflation trade played out. Treasury 10-year yields were little changed as the Federal Reserve began its two-day policy meeting. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1% to $64.72 a barrel, the biggest fall in a week. Gold weakened 0.1% to $1,729.98 an ounce.

“The actual growth numbers keep coming out ahead of almost all of what experts predict, so the market is trying to sort out what that means over the longer term,” said Stephen Dover, chief market strategist and head of the Franklin Templeton Investment Institute.

“Growth had so far outperformed value that there was a rotation, but a lot of that rotation has happened, and so now they’re closer to each other and there’s a tug and pull back and forth between those areas and sectors.”

The S&P 500 Index declined 0.1% to 3,964.53 as of 1:45 p.m. New York time, the first retreat in more than a week and the Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 0.5% to 32,802.19, the first retreat in more than a week.

The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.4% to 13,507.25, the highest in more than two weeks.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index increased 0.9% to 426.82, the highest in about 13 months on the largest climb in more than a week. In currencies, the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed at 1,139.57.

The euro dipped 0.2% to $1.1906, the weakest in a week. The British pound was little changed at $1.3898, the weakest in a week. The Japanese yen strengthened 0.1% to 108.98 per dollar, the largest advance in a week. The yield on two-year Treasuries declined less than one basis point to 0.15%.

The yield on 10-year Treasuries climbed one basis point to 1.62%. Britain’s 10-year yield dipped one basis point to 0.785%. Germany’s 10-year yield declined less than one basis point to -0.34%, the lowest in two weeks.

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