Stocks were choppy and mixed in midday trading Tuesday as a drop in bond yields hurt bank stocks but helped big technology stocks.
The S&P 500 index was up 0.1% as of 12:07 p.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 138 points, or 0.4%, to 33,605 and the Nasdaq was up 0.5%. The divergence was largely due to the fact the Dow has more bank stocks while the Nasdaq is heavily weighted with technology companies.
Dow component Johnson & Johnson fell 2.6% after U.S. regulators recommended a pause in using its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine to investigate reports of possibly dangerous blood clots. Moderna, which also makes a COVID-19 vaccine, rose 6.7%.
The potential loss of a vaccine option is casting a shadow over many companies that are relying on ramped up distribution to recover from the pandemic. American Airlines slipped 3.3% and Delta Air Lines fell 2.4%. A broad mix of retailers and travel-related companies like hotels were also weighed down.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury fell to to 1.65% from 1.67% the day before. JPMorgan Chase fell 0.7% and Wells Fargo lost 1.7%.