US STOCKS-S&P 500 ends down slightly; tech trims losses as yields come off highs

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* Nasdaq headed for monthly loss
* Bank stocks rebound

By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, March 30 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 ended down
slightly on Tuesday, with investors selling tech-related growth
shares following a rise in U.S. Treasury yields.
At the same time, S&P 500 financials .SPSY , industrials
.SPLRCI and consumer discretionary .SPLRCD rose, extending
the recent rotation out of growth and into so-called value
names.
The Nasdaq was on track for its first monthly loss since
November following the recent rise in Treasury yields. Tech
stocks, which have a low-rate environment heavily baked into
their high valuations, have been among the hardest hit by the
rise in yields.
"It's somewhat of a leadership-less market," said Tim
Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in
New York. "Investors' preferences are flipping around here
almost on a daily basis, primarily between tech plus and
cyclicals.
"Cyclicals have certainly had the upper hand here for a
while, trading off the reopening of the economy. Tech plus holds
in there because it's really the promise of the future - it
should provide investors with steady growth."
The benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield US10YT=RR hit a
14-month high of 1.776% early on Tuesday, but was at about
1.717% by late afternoon in New York. Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell
100.3 points, or 0.3%, to 33,071.07, the S&P 500 .SPX lost
12.21 points, or 0.31%, to 3,958.88 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC dropped 14.25 points, or 0.11%, to 13,045.39.
"For the next day or two, (value stocks) will probably be
leaders because we have quarter-end and institutions want to
make sure that they have exposure to the names that performed
well," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota
Wealth in New York.
Bets on a swift economic rebound backed by vaccine rollouts
and unprecedented stimulus have helped the S&P 500 and the Dow
hit record closing highs recently.
On Wednesday, President Joe Biden will unveil more details
about the first stage of his infrastructure plan, which could be
worth as much as $4 trillion. Bank stocks rebounded as investors took heart from signs
that the impact from the fall of a U.S. hedge fund did not
ripple out to broader markets.
Wells Fargo & Co WFC.N jumped after the lender said it had
a prime brokerage relationship with Archegos Capital and that it
no longer had any exposure and did not experience any losses.