Stocks Continue to Take a Beating Amid Bond Meltdown
With bonds at their lowest levels in a year, stocks remain under heavy pressure.
The problem is the April
Consumer Price Index
, which came in well above expectations and may force the
Federal Open Market Committee
to shift toward a tightening bias at its meeting next Tuesday.
"People are getting spooked again about inflation," said Jim Volk, co-director of institutional trading at
D.A. Davidson
. "We'll see what happens, but right now the line of least resistance is down."
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
was lately off 147, or 1%, to 10,960. The
S&P 500
was down 23, or 2%, to 1345.
Tech stocks and Internets were taking heavy hits. The
Nasdaq Composite
TheStreet Recommends
was down 30, or 1% to 2552, and
TheStreet.com Internet Sector Index
was down 9 to 633. Small-caps, which have seen good gains over the last month, were down as well: The
Russell 2000
lost 5, or 1%, to 446.
The 30-year bond was last down 2 2/32 to 90 29/32, yielding 5.90%
There was selective strength in oils and cyclicals, as investors bet that growth in those sectors would be able outpace a hike in rates.
9:58 a.m.: Surprise in CPI Data Sends Stocks Tumbling
Stocks and bonds are plunging in early trading after a surprisingly large increase in the
Consumer Price Index
.
The April CPI rose 0.7% overall and 0.4% excluding volatile food and energy prices -- both figures were way ahead of expectations. The 30-year Treasury bond lurched sharply downward as soon as the numbers came out at 8:30 a.m. EDT, and it lately was down 1 23/32 to 91 8/32. The yield shot up to 5.88%, the highest level in nearly a year.
The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
was down 105 to 11,002, the
S&P 500
was down 18 to 1350, the
Nasdaq Composite Index
was down 46 to 2536, the
Russell 2000
was down 6 to 445 and
TheStreet.com Internet Sector
index was down 14 to 628.
Most Up at Open -- NYSE
Case (CSE) , up 1 11/16 to 44 1/2
: Case was rising on news of a possible merger with
New Holland
(NH) - Get NantHealth Inc. Report
.
Most Up at Open -- Nasdaq
@Home (ATHM) - Get Autohome Inc. American Depositary Shares each representing four class A. Report, up 2 3/4 to 152 1/16
: The company formed an alliance with
Microsoft
(MSFT) - Get Microsoft Corporation Report
to speed the launch of high-speed Web services.
Most Down at Open -- NYSE
Charles Schwab (SCH) , down 5 15/16 to 111 1/16
.
Most Down at Open -- Nasdaq
Net.B@nk (NTBK) , down 6 1/8 to 181 1/8
.
--
John J. Edwards III
