Stocks mixed as yields veer in bond market

NEW YORK – Wall Street swung to a mixed finish Monday, continuing a monthslong run where it’s slavishly followed the cue of the bond market.

The S&P 500 slipped 7.12 points, or 0.2%, to 4,217.04, coming off its worst week in a month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 190.87, or 0.6%, to 32,836.41. The Nasdaq composite rose 34.52, or 0.3%, to 13,018.33. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 14.91 points, or 0.9% to 1,665.88.

Rapidly rising yields in the bond market have been pressuring stock prices since the summer, and they seemed set to climb further.

Early Monday, the yield on the 10-year Treasury briefly topped 5.02% to touch its highest level since 2007. That helped to torpedo stocks, and the S&P 500 quickly slumped 0.8%.

But the 10-year yield eventually eased back to 4.84%, down from with 4.91% late Friday, as oil prices tumbled to take some pressure off inflation. That relaxed the vise on the stock market.

Easier bond yields tend to most help stocks of companies promising big growth far in the future or those seen as the most expensive. That gave a particular boost to technology and other high-growth stocks.

A 3.8% jump for Nvidia and 0.8% rise for Microsoft were the two strongest forces pushing upward on the S&P 500. They helped limit the market’s losses, when the majority of stocks on Wall Street weakened.

Energy giant Chevron is putting some of its strength to work by buying rival Hess. Chevron said it’s swallowing up Hess in an all-stock deal valued at $53 billion. Chevron fell 3.7%, and Hess slipped 1.1%.

It’s the second huge deal in the oil-and-gas industry in as many weeks. Exxon Mobil said earlier this month that it’s buying Pioneer Natural Resources in an allstock deal valued at $59.5 billion.

Apple rose 0.1% after recovering earlier losses, following reports that Foxconn Technology, its Taiwanbased supplier, was recently subjected to searches by Chinese tax authorities.

While worries about higher Treasury yields and the war in Gaza weigh on markets, support also remains from strength for corporate profits and the overall U.S. economy.

The majority of companies in the S&P 500 have been reporting better profits for the summer than analysts expected, as is usually the case. It’s still early days for the reporting season, but the pace picks up this week when more than 30% of the companies in

the S&P 500 will report. They include General Motors, Microsoft and Amazon.

Economic updates this week will include a Friday report on how much U.S. households are spending and what kind of inflation they’re feeling.

Strong spending by U.S. consumers has been one of the main reasons the economy has avoided a recession, but it’s also threatening to keep upward pressure on inflation.

Gold for December delivery fell $6.60 to $1,987.80 an ounce. Silver for December delivery fell 29 cents to $23.21 an ounce and December copper rose 2 cents to $3.59 a pound.

The dollar fell to 149.58 Japanese yen from 149.87 yen. The euro rose to $1.0675 from $1.0592.