S&P 500 slips, but losses kept in check as Nvidia climbs ahead of results
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* Jobless claims dip, but still remain elevated
* Best Buy slips on downbeat annual sales forecast
* Big tech stocks fall; banks, energy shares gain
* Futures: Dow up 0.08%, S&P down 0.24%, Nasdaq falls 0.76%
(Adds comment, details; Updates market prices)
By Devik Jain and Shreyashi Sanyal
Feb 25 (Reuters) - The Nasdaq and S&P 500 indexes were set
to open lower on Thursday as heavyweight technology-related
stocks remained under pressure with a rise in U.S. Treasury
yields, while data showed weekly jobless claims fell more than
expected.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yields US10YT=RR hit a
one-year high of 1.45%, triggering profit-taking bids in some
high-flying growth companies on concerns about heightened
valuations.
Apple Inc AAPL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Microsoft Corp
MSFT.O , Alphabet Inc GOOGL.O , Facebook Inc FB.O and
Netflix Inc NFLX.O were down between 0.5% and 0.8% before the
bell.
"The higher the yield on bonds, the more we see this push to
move out of stocks," said Jeffrey Carbone, managing partner at
Cornerstone Wealth, in Huntersville, North Carolina.
"The market is starting to get a bit frothy, so investors
are taking some gains off the growth areas of stocks, which had
the biggest movements and moving it to more conservative areas
for higher yields in the bond market."
The S&P 500 growth index .IGX has risen more than 2.5% in
February, sharply underperforming the value index .IVX , which
has gained nearly 9% on optimism related to a post-pandemic
reopening of the economy.
Citigroup Inc C.N , Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS.N ,
JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM.N , Morgan Stanley MS.N , Wells Fargo
& Co WFC.N and Bank of America Corp BAC.N were up between
1.1% and 1.2%.
On the data front, the Labor Department's weekly jobless
claims report showed fewer Americans filed new claims for
unemployment benefits last week amid falling COVID-19
infections, but the near-term outlook still remained unclear
after winter storms wreaked havoc in the South region in the
middle of this month.
U.S. stocks ended higher on Wednesday with the blue-chip Dow
.DJI hitting record levels as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome
Powell continued adding weight to the central bank's promise to
get the economy back to full employment, and to not worry about
inflation unless prices begin rising in a persistent and
troubling way. The S&P 500 .SPX and the Dow Jones .DJI are tracking
their best monthly performance since November as the United
States accelerates its coronavirus vaccination program and plans
further fiscal spending to support the world's largest economy.
At 8:38 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis 1YMcv1 were up 27 points, or
0.08%, S&P 500 e-minis EScv1 were down 9.5 points, or 0.24%,
and Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQcv1 were down 100.75 points, or
0.76%.
Tesla Inc TSLA.O fell 2.6% after a media report that the
electric-car maker told workers it would temporarily halt some
production at its car assembly plant in California. Best Buy Co Inc BBY.N slid 7.5% after the consumer
electronics retailer missed estimates for holiday-quarter
comparable sales and provided a weak full-year
forecast. Moderna Inc MRNA.O gained 3.8% after the drugmaker said it
was expecting to post $18.4 billion in sales from its COVID-19
vaccine this year. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd NCLH.N added 3.9% as it
hinted at a recovery in demand in 2022 after the cruise operator
posted a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss.