Slumping technology stocks pull Wall Street lower

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks fell in afternoon trading on Wall Street Tuesday, weighed down by a big decline in tech heavyweights over concerns about persistently rising inflation's impact to their bottom lines.

The S&P 500 index fell 1.7% as of 12:02 p.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 265 points, or 0.9%, to 31,613 and the Nasdaq fell 2.8%.

A stark profit warning from Snapchat’s parent company spooked investors into dumping the stocks of major social media companies. Snap plummeted 40.5%, while Facebook's parent, Meta, slumped 8.8%. Google's parent fell 8.5%.

Technology and communications stocks, with their lofty values, tend to have an outsize influence on the market. The sectors have been responsible for much of the volatility the market has seen recently as well as a the broad decline the market's major indexes have seen since early April as investors worry about the impact of rising inflation on businesses and consumers.

Retailers and companies that rely on direct consumer spending also fell sharply. Amazon shed 3.6% and Target fell 4.2%.

Bond yields fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 2.74% from 2.86% late Monday.

Falling bond yields weighed on banks, which rely on higher yields to charge more lucrative interest on loans. Citigroup fell 1.3%.

Homebuilders slumped following a government report showing that sales of newly built homes fell far short of economists' forecasts. KB Home fell 3%

Household goods companies and utilities, which are considered less risky than other sectors, made gains.

The pile of concerns weighing on the market has pushed the benchmark S&P 500 to the brink of a bear market, which is when an index falls 20% from its most recent record high. It is down roughly 18.5% from its record high set earlier this year.

.

..