NEW YORK - A sell-off in technology stocks Monday pulled the broader market lower as investors unloaded some of the biggest names in the industry.
The Nasdaq lost 50.40 points, or 1.18 percent, to close at 4,226.39.
Other indexes also fell but not as much. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 9.08 points, or 0.49 percent, to 1,857.44. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 26.08 points, or 0.16 percent, to 16,276.69.
Netflix fell 7 percent, Facebook fell 5 percent, and Google and Amazon.com each fell more than 2 percent.
“It’s expected choppiness, but it’s unnerving nonetheless, especially when the areas of strength are all of a sudden in question,” said Chris Bouffard, chief investment officer with The Mutual Fund Store in Overland Park, Kan. His firm oversees $9 billion. “The high flyers are really being reeled in.”
Tech stocks have soared during the past year, pushing the Nasdaq composite index up 30 percent during the past 12 months, more than twice as much as the Dow Jones industrial average. Netflix and Facebook have doubled in price in that time.
Stocks had their biggest gains in a month last week, with the S&P 500 rising 1.4 percent, as data from unemployment claims to manufacturing showed the economy is strengthening.
Stocks drifted lower early Monday as traders feared sanctions against Russia could tip the world’s ninth-largest economy into recession. Investors were also reacting to news that Russian troops had seized Ukrainian ships and military installations in the Crimean peninsula. Russia annexed the region last week.
Biotechnology stocks, another sector that has soared during the past year, extended a decline that began Friday after U.S. lawmakers questioned the pricing of a Hepatitis C drug made by Gilead Sciences.
A popular fund tracking biotech stocks, the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF, fell 3 percent Monday. It’s been up 53 percent during the past 12 months.
“It’s the richest part of the market, so … you’re going to get nervousness,” said Jerry Webman, chief economist of Oppenheimer Funds.
Among stocks making big moves:
Herbalife rose $3.32, or 6.7 percent, to $52.86 after agreeing to back billionaire Carl Icahn’s three nominees for its board. Icahn is a supporter of the embattled health-supplements company in its fight with another famed investor, William Ackman, who has accused the company of operating a pyramid scheme.
Apple bucked the downward trend in technology stocks. The company rose after The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is in talks with the cable provider Comcast to offer a streaming video service. Apple rose $6.32, or 1 percent, to $539.19. Comcast has discussed providing preferential access to its cables for video content sent to Apple’s set-top boxes, the newspaper said, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.73 percent.
Information for this article was contributed by Lu Wang and Callie Bost of Bloomberg News.
Business, Pages 24 on 03/25/2014