The booming technology trade that has lifted stocks to new highs during the pandemic continues to unravel Wednesday as inflation concerns rattle the market despite a strong resurgence among hard-hit energy firms.... [+]Shortly after the market open, the Dow Jones industrial average ticked down 60 points, or 0.2%, while the S&P 500, which broke a five-day losing streak on Tuesday, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively.
Energy firms continued to head up market gains Wednesday, with Cabot Oil & Gas Corp and Entergy climbing 6% and 2%, respectively; the S&P 500 Energy Index has soared 27% this year–more than double the return of any other sector over the same period. Technology stocks, on the other hand, continued to slip: Apple, Amazon and Alphabet all fell about 1% Wednesday morning.
Elsewhere in the market, Tesla rival Fisker Inc. is soaring nearly 20%, nearly hitting a record high from November, afterShares of payments fintech Square, meanwhile, are sinking about 5% after the firm disclosed in afourth-quarter earnings report that it has doubled-down on a $50 million bitcoin investment from October, purchasing $170 million more of the world's largest cryptocurrency since.
Yields on the 10-year Treasury–which moves inversely to stocks–rose 50 basis points Wednesday to 1.4%, tacking on to their highest level since last February following congressional testimony from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who insisted Tuesday that monetary policy would remain accommodative despite inflationary concerns.