U.S. stocks fall further as tech tumble continues

Technology stocks continued to slump, pulling the broader market lower.

Netflix, Apple and Amazon all fell sharply on Monday, reversing some of the tech sector's rise this year. Tech stocks have so far outpaced the rest of the market. 

Energy and phone companies, which have lagged the market, rose. Verizon climbed 1 percent and AT&T gained 0.7 percent.

General Electric jumped 3.6 percent after Jeff Immelt said he would step down as CEO. The stock has struggled in the 16 years Immelt has run the company.

Keeping score

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 2 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,429. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 36 points, or 0.2 percent, to 21,235. The Nasdaq dropped 32 points, or 0.5 percent, to 6,175. 

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.21 percent.

Tech sell-off

Big-name technology companies continued to fall. The stocks gave up a month of gains Friday, and on Monday, Apple shed $6.08, or 4.1 percent, to $142.90 mid-day, while Google parent Alphabet lost $29.62, or 3.1 percent, to $940.50. Facebook fell $3.96, or 2.6 percent, to $145.64, while Microsoft sank $2.04, or 2.9 percent, to $68.28. 

Elsewhere, chipmakers fell, with Nvidia off $6.37, or 4.3 percent, at $143.23 and Advanced Micro Devices down 65 cents, or 5.3 percent, to $11.63. Software maker Adobe Systems gave up $.597, or 4.3 percent, to $132.08.

Technology stocks have done far better than the rest of the market this year and they were trading close to all-time highs before Friday's drop. The S&P 500 technology index shed 2.7 percent Friday for one of its worst days of the year.

The tech slide is significant to the broader market for several reason. Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook are five of the six largest companies by market cap, and as such have a great deal of pull in indexes like the S&P 500.

They're also overrepresented in many Americans' retirement savings. Apple and Microsoft are the number-one and number-two holdings in mutual funds, according to the investment research firm Morningstar. More than 800 funds own shares of each of those companies, according to Morningstar. Just over 600 own Facebook stock. So it's more than likely that the current softness in the tech sector is having an outsize impact on workers' 401(k) accounts.

Jeff Immelt down

GE said Immelt would step down after 16 years running the company. John Flannery, the head of GE's health care division, will take over the post in August, the company said. Immelt will remain GE's chairman until the end of this year. 

In recent years GE has sold or split off numerous businesses, including its financial services division, and focused on new technologies as it returned to its roots as an industrial company.

GE stock gained $1.07, or 3.8 percent, to $29.01.

Energy up

Benchmark U.S. crude added 62 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $46.45 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, added 67 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $48.82 a barrel in London. 

Among energy companies, Exxon Mobil rose $1.26, or 1.5 percent, to $83.39 and Chevron picked up $1.54, or 1.4 percent, to $107.94.

Bond yields up, too

Bond prices inched lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.22 percent from 2.20 percent late Friday. That sent banks higher, as higher yields mean higher interest rates and bigger profits on lending. Citigroup added 36 cents to $64.81 and Bank of America advanced 19 cents to $23.87.