S&P 500 Nears 1850 Level

US shares mixed in early trade today with the selloff in tech shares continuing after last trading day’s sharp Nasdaq fall. Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 14.49 points (0.09 percent) at 16,288.28.
“Incoming data continue to be constrained by adverse weather,” Nomura said in a client report. “The impact in January appears to have been particularly large, with somewhat more moderate effects in February. We expect fundamental support for growth to gradually show through in coming months.”

Stock-market bulls took solace in upbeat economic data to keep major indexes in positive territory last week, shrugging off a midweek tumble sparked by Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s hint that official interest rates could start to rise a bit earlier in 2015 than investors had penciled in. Investors kept up the sale of tech high-flyers in the wake of Friday’s 1 percent Nasdaq loss. Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) fell 3.4%, Tesla 3.9%, Netflix 5.7%, and Google 1.8%.

On the other hand Biotech stocks also under pressure. Gilead Sciences lost another 2.0% after falling 7.7 percent from Wednesday to Friday, and Biogen Idec slid 2.5% on top of its 10% loss in the same period last week. Procter and Gamble led the Dow gainers up 2.2%, while Pfizer was the biggest loser, its shares down 1.8 percent after the release of results of clinical tests on its Tofacitinib psoriasis treatment.

The broad-based S&P 500 lost 8.33 (0.45 percent) at 1,858.19, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite fell 46.57 (1.1 percent) to 4,230.22. US traders were looking to upcoming date releases to confirm the popular argument that harsh winter storms were to blame for economic weakness in the December-February period.

San Francisco Federal Reserve President John Williams in an interview with Washington Post said there was no suggestion from the Federal Reserve last week that the central bank will pull the trigger to hike interest rates sooner than previously believed.

Bond prices were mixed. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 2.76 percent from 2.74 percent late Friday, while the 30-year dropped to 3.60 percent from 3.61 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.