Investing.com – Wall Street struggled for direction on Tuesday after the long holiday weekend, as rising bond yields weighed on investors minds.
The S&P 500 was down seven points or 0.27% to 2,724.87 as of 9:45 AM ET (14:45 GMT) while the Dow composite decreased 98 points or 0.39% to 25,121.25, and tech heavy NASDAQ Composite rose over one and a half points or 0.02% to 7,240.96.
Fresh jitters have returned to the market, as investors keep an eye on the bond market amid inflation concerns. Markets were closed on Monday for President’s Day.
Bond yields pulled back slightly from earlier gains, with the benchmark 10-Year Treasury note at 2.893% and the 30-Year note increasing to 3.146%.
Home Depot (NYSE:HD) was among the biggest gainers after the morning bell, rising 1.60% after its earnings beat analysts’ forecasts. Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) was up 1.04% while drugstore Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE:RAD) rose 6.34% after grocer Albertsons said it would acquire the portion of the retailer not being bought by Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA).
The owner of America’s largest brick and mortar stores, Walmart (NYSE:WMT), slumped 7.43% after it reported lower than expected profit in the fourth quarter. Social media app Snap Inc (NYSE:SNAP) was down 5.63% after Citigroup (NYSE:C) downgraded its stock to sell while Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) lost 3.93% after it raised its offer to buy NXP Semiconductors NV (NASDAQ:NXPI) to $127.50 per share from $110.
In Europe stocks were mostly up in a choppy day of trading. In Germany the DAX rose 48 points or 0.39% while France’s CAC 40 increased 28 points or 0.54% and in London the FTSE 100 lost 13 points or 0.19%. Meanwhile Spain’s IBEX 35 was up 83 points or 0.85% and the pan-European Euro Stoxx 50 inched up 21 points or 0.63%.
In commodities, gold futures were down 0.91% to $1,343.90 a troy ounce while crude oil futures rose 0.29% to $61.73 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.46% to 89.49.