Market report

Tech stocks fall as Dow hits high

NEW YORK -- Shares of technology companies plunged Thursday, and high-dividend stocks also took hefty losses as bond yields rose to their highest level in more than a year. But more big gains for blue-chip banking and oil stocks pulled the Dow Jones industrial average to a record high.

The Dow rose 68.35 points, or 0.4 percent, to 19,191.93. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 7.73 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,191.08. The Nasdaq composite fell 72.57 points, or 1.4 percent, to 5,251.11.

Shares of Facebook and Oracle fell as technology companies took their biggest losses in two months. Rising bond yields pushed income-seeking investors away from real estate and utility companies. Health care stocks also slumped.

Banks' stocks continued to soar as investors expect them to make bigger profits on loans as interest rates rise. Oil prices climbed for the second day after ministers representing the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel agreed to trim oil production next year.

Karyn Cavanaugh, senior market strategist for Voya Investment Strategies, said a focus on President-elect Donald Trump's trade policies might be hurting tech stocks. On Thursday Trump toured a Carrier factory in Indiana after announcing the company will keep some operations at the facility instead of moving them to Mexico.

"If you're going to bring jobs back to America and make stuff here, tech is going to be pretty vulnerable," she said. "If there's going to be a trade war, tech is pretty vulnerable."

Stock indexes set records after the presidential election last month, but lately they have wobbled as different industries were pulled in opposite directions. Banks and industrial and materials companies are rising while tech stocks have weakened.

Bond prices continued to tumble, sending benchmark yields higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.44 percent from 2.38 percent, its highest since July 2015. That sent bank stocks higher because higher bond yields are linked to higher interest rates, which allow banks to make more money from lending.

Goldman Sachs shares jumped $7.34, or 3.4 percent, to $226.63 and JPMorgan Chase picked up $1.62, or 2 percent, to $81.79. Goldman is trading at its highest price since December 2007.

Facebook skidded $3.32, or 2.8 percent, to $115.10 and chipmaker Analog Devices dropped $5.23, or 7 percent, to $69.01. Microsoft lost $1.06, or 1.8 percent, to $59.20.

Oil prices rallied again and reached their highest level since mid-October. Benchmark U.S. crude picked up $1.62, or 3.3 percent, to close at $51.06 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the standard for pricing international oils, added $2.10, or 4.1 percent, to $53.94 a barrel in London. Chevron shares gained $1.73, or 1.6 percent, to $113.29 and Phillips 66 rose $1.90, or 2.3 percent, to $84.98.

The price of oil soared 9 percent Wednesday after the members of OPEC, which collectively produce more than one-third of the world's oil, agreed to a small cut in production starting in January. The price of oil has mostly traded between $40 and $50 a barrel since early April. It dipped as low as $26 a barrel in February.

Business on 12/02/2016

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