NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average rose on Wednesday, with the Dow hitting its highest closing level since late January as rising Treasury yields boosted the financial sector and trade worries subsided.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC ended the session slightly lower.
Financial companies .SPSY rose 1.8 percent, the biggest percentage gainer among the major S&P 500 sectors, as the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield hit a four-month high. Goldman Sachs (GS.N), JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), Citigroup (C.N) and Bank of America (BAC.N) ended the session up between 2.6 and 3.3 percent.
“The sharp rise in the 10-year that you’ve seen in the last few days and the widening of the yield curve, that has really built the fire under these financials,” said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama. “The high rates have had the opposite effect on interest rate sensitive stocks like utilities.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 158.8 points, or 0.61 percent, to 26,405.76, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 3.64 points, or 0.13 percent, to 2,907.95 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 6.07 points, or 0.08 percent, to 7,950.04.
Of the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500, seven ended in negative territory.
So-called defensive stocks lost ground as rising yields provided investors with an attractive alternative to higher-risk equities. The utilities sector .SPLRCU was the biggest loser, falling 2.1 percent.
The technology sector .SPLRCT edged 0.1 percent lower, pulled down by a 1.3 percent decline in
