Stocks end wobbly day mostly lower

U.S. stock indexes closed mostly lower Tuesday as losses in healthcare and technology companies kept gains in energy and other sectors in check.

Energy companies that stand to benefit from record electricity prices due to the frigid cold impacting much of the country surged. Marathon Oil and Apache Corp. were among the biggest gainers.

Bond yields, which have been ticking higher on expectations of rising inflation, rose sharply. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.29%, the highest level in a year.

Bank stocks made broad gains on the higher yields, which allow them to charge more lucrative interest rates on loans. Utilities and real-estate stocks, bond proxies that can look less attractive when bond yields rise, were among the biggest decliners.

Despite the mostly tentative day of trading, the

Dow Jones Industrial Average inched higher, enough to set another all-time high.

“You have a continuation of some of the trends that we’ve had recently and the kind of bifurcation within the market where the things that are benefiting from higher yields are continuing to do well, and that speaks to an improving economy and more inflation,” said Willie Delwiche, investment strategist at All Star Charts.

The S&P 500 slipped 2.24 points (0.1%) to 3,932.59. The Dow rose 64.35 (0.2%) to 31,522.75. The Nasdaq Composite index fell 47.97 (0.3%) to 14,047.50. The three indexes closed at record highs on Friday. U.S. markets were closed Monday for a holiday.

Stocks of smaller companies fared worse than the broader market. The Russell 2000 index lost 16.47 (0.7%) to 2,272.89.