Stocks fall as higher yields hit tech names again, retail earnings disappoint

U.S. stocks fell at the open on Wednesday morning as higher yields continued to put pressure on high-flying tech stocks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Averaged shed 200 points, or about 0.6%. The S&P 500 lose 0.6%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composit slid 0.9%.

The three major indexes held lower even after new Labor Department data showed new weekly jobless claims fell far more than expected to their lowest level since November 1969, underscoring the current tight labor market conditions. The 10-year Treasury yield rose to near 1.7% amid these further signs of a firming economic recovery.

Rising interest rates have coincided with a selloff in tech and growth stocks this week, with the Nasdaq dropping another 0.5% on Tuesday after Monday's more than 1% decline.

"Initially, the markets were happy with the FOMC decision [for Fed Chair Jerome Powell'srenomination] in the sense that it was sort of a continuity play to some degree. But then rates started to rise, and a lot of folks read rising rates as negative for big-cap tech," Stuart Kaiser, UBS head of equity derivatives research,told Yahoo Finance Live."So I think the tradeoff we're going to have here is that, tech has been market leadership — it's obviously a strong earnings growth and free cash flow engine for U.S. equities — but if you believe it's going to come under pressure from higher yields, then you end up with kind of a difficult Catch-22."

Investors are set to receive more economic data later Wednesday morning ahead of the Thanksgiving Day market holiday, with both the U.S. stock and bond markets set to close all day Thursday. Importantly, the Bureau of Economic Analysis will release the October personal consumption expenditures (PCE) deflator, offering an updated look at the extent of the price increases still reverberating through the U.S. economy.

The headline PCE deflator is expected to rise by 5.1% in October over last year for its fastest annual growth rate in more than three decades. Taken in tandem with a bevy of other data pointing to persistently high inflation, investors are speculating that the Federal Reserve will step in and raise benchmark interest rates from their near-zero levels next year to try and stem rising prices.

According to other analysts, the market action this week — with a renewed rotation away from technology and growth stocks in the face of rising rates — could presage the investing environment for next year.

"[Tuesday] might be an example of what we see more of next year as the Fed moves into a mode of withdrawing liquidity from the markets and ending these pandemic-era policies, perhaps with rate hikes at the end of the year," Jeffrey Kleintop, Charles Schwab chief global investment strategist,told Yahoo Finance Live."And that means higher-valuation stocks, well, they tend to not do as well in environments of rising interest rates and tighter financial conditions."

"So you may want to look to be in those sectors that are maybe trading closer to their average valuations, looking to leadership like financials, energy," he added. "The only caveat to that is when we see these upticks in COVID cases globally, it tends to favor those lockdown defensives like technology."