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Stocks mixed: Dow closes at record high, Nasdaq falls; bond yields jump

Marley Jay
The Associated Press

Stocks closed mixed Monday as the Dow posted a sixth straight day of gains and rose to another record closing high but broader indexes struggled.

Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton last week set off a rally on Wall Street, as jitters gave way to hopes and investors began betting that Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress will boost infrastructure spending, cut taxes and relax regulations that affect energy, finance and other businesses.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

But stocks were uneven on Monday as the broader market stalled and tech stock took a hit. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 21.03 points, or 0.1%, to an all-time closing high of 18,868.69. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dipped 0.25, or less than 0.1%, to 2164.20     and the Nasdaq composite index dropped 18.72, or 0.4%, to 5218.40.

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Bond prices continued to fall as investors anticipated that the spending plans of president-elect Donald Trump could also lead to higher inflation. That sent yields sharply higher as the 10-year Treasury bond yield climbed to 2.22% Monday and jumped as high as 2.31%. That is up from 1.78% a week ago. The rise in U.S. bond yields has helped support the dollar as traders price in the prospect of bigger returns on their holdings.

“Expectations of an infrastructure spending spree, fiscal stimulus and deregulation are, however, intensifying the bond market sell-off via hopes of growth, inflation and, more importantly, interest rate rises,” said Mike van Dulken of Accendo Markets.

Taxes, trade, more: Here's the economy according to President-elect Trump

Technology companies like Apple and Microsoft were taking big losses on fears about their overseas revenue and that was canceling out gains for banks, which are trading higher on rising bond yields.

Apple (AAPL) fell 2.5%, Facebook (FB) declined 3.3% and  Microsoft (MSFT) slid 1.5%. Alphabet (GOOGL), the parent company of Google, slipped 2.4%. Tech stocks have struggled over the last few days as investors wonder if Donald Trump’s policies as president will hurt their sales in China and other markets overseas.

Bank stocks continued to surge, as they’ve done since the election. Higher bond yields point to higher interest rates and bigger profits for banks from lending money.  Bank investors are also pleased at the prospect of looser regulation and changes to the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill or to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Bank of America (BAC) jumped 5.6%  and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) picked up 3.7%.

Overseas, European stocks were higher after a mixed day in Asia, where Japan’s benchmark got a boost from a weaker yen. France’s CAC 40 gained 0.4% and Germany’s DAX added 0.2%. Britain’s FTSE 100  rose 0.3%.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 1.7% and the Shanghai Composite rose 0.2 %, but most other markets fell. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.5% and South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.4%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 1.5%.

Data for Japan’s gross domestic product showed the economy had grown faster than expected in the July-September quarter, rising 2.2% in annualized terms, on the back of healthy exports. The dollar being sought as a safe haven after the U.S. election is also good news for Japan Inc.’s giant exporters.

Benchmark U.S. crude slipped just 9 cents to $43.32 a barrel in New York.

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