Stocks extend slide, Dow drops as much as 600 points
NEW YORK -- Major U.S. stock indexes fell sharply Tuesday as investors sold technology and industrial stocks. Bond yields continue to rise, with the 10-year Treasury note briefly reaching 3 percent for the first time in more than four years.
The Dow and the Nasdaq both fell 1.7 percent. The S&P 500 fell slightly less -- 1.3 percent.
Alphabet (GOOG), Google's parent company, fell 4.8 percent to $1,021.50. The company had reported solid results Monday, with strong gains in ad sales. But expenses also rose.
Facebook (FB), which reports earnings on Wednesday, fell 3.6 percent, to $159.89. Microsoft skidded 2.3 percent and Amazon (AMZN) shed 3.8 percent to $1,456.61.
3M (MMM), which makes Post-it notes and industrial coatings and ceramics, dropped 6.8 percent after it cut its annual forecast. Defense contractor Lockheed Martin (LMT) sank 6.1 percent.
Caterpillar (CAT) had a strong first quarter, but company executives told analysts on a conference call in the late morning that the company doesn't expect to report a larger per-share profit for the rest of the year. It jumped in early trading but later fell 6.2 percent.
Bonds
Bond prices were little changed after an early dip. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note stayed at 2.98 percent, matching Monday's close. Earlier it peaked at 3 percent for the first time since January 2014. Low interest rates have played an important role in the economic recovery of the last decade by making it cheap for people and companies to borrow money.
The yield on the 10-year note is a benchmark for many kinds of interest rates including mortgages, and it's been climbing because investors expect greater economic growth and faster inflation.
