Traders were sifting through statements from a number of Federal Reserve officials and looking forward to Jerome Powell's speech on Friday for hints on the direction of interest rates when a rally in large tech fizzled out as bond yields increased.
The Nasdaq 100 plunged twice as much as the S&P 500, which sank more than 1%. Treasury two-year rates, which are more responsive to impending changes in policy, stayed around 5%. Tesla and Apple each had a decline of at least 2.6%, putting pressure on the megacap area. The leader in the race for artificial intelligence, Nvidia, nearly wiped away a rise that reached 6%.
Traders are closely monitoring the annual meeting of the world's top central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where Powell is set to give a speech on Friday at 10:05 AM Washington time. The Fed chairman is anticipated to use his platform to explain how policymakers will decide when to start reducing interest rates and whether rates should be raised.
