The S&P 500 fell and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100's trimmed earlier losses that exceeded one per cent. Declines in the shares of Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. weighed on both indexes. An initial rally in Tesla Inc. shares following Elon Musk's suggestion that he may step back from Twitter Inc. faded. Treasury yields climbed, with the policy-sensitive two-year yield around 4.26 per cent.
“Those who were in the camp of a year-end rally are now second-guessing their investment thesis,” wrote JC O'Hara, chief market technician at MKM Partners. “The markets may have placed a little too much faith in Santa Claus and the rally he typically brings.” “I'm kind of more in the camp of they hike in February, and I do think they'll hike again in March, but that's probably it,” Matt Brill, head of U.S. investment grade and senior portfolio manager at Invesco, said on Bloomberg Television. “We're 90 per cent-95 per cent of the way done here. I think the floor has sort of been set and the worst is certainly behind us.”