By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – The S&P 500 swung between gains and losses, after hitting a fresh record high as plunging bond yields helped keep tech in the ascendency ahead of the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve on Wednesday.
The S&P 500 rose 0.2% to remain close its earlier record of 4,359.30. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.17%, or 59 points, the Nasdaq was down 0.1% having also hit a record of 14,755.3 earlier in the day.
The ongoing slump in U.S. bond yields continued to dominate investor attention, with the United States 10-Year yield briefly slipping below 1.3% on concerns the economic recovery has seen its best days.
The move in bond markets serve as a gauge of "how investors view the macro landscape going forward," according to Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott. But yields are oversold, and could be set for a bounce that, if sustained – the 10-year Treasury yield breaking above 1.50% to 1.60% range - could revive the reflation trade, giving cyclicals a lift.
If yields fail to mount a sustainable charge higher, then "then choppy-to-lower trading is likely to favor a 'low-rate / low-growth' environment for some time," Luschini added.
Against the backdrop of falling bond yields, meanwhile, growth corners of the market like tech continued to rack up gains, though social media stocks were lagging behind.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) remained below the flatline after former President Donald Trump said he is filing a class-action lawsuit against the social media giant and other tech giants including Twitter and Google as well as their chief executives because of bans imposed on him and others.
Google-parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) recovered losses, while Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) was down 1%.
Materials and industrials were also among the biggest sector gainers, while energy slipped further into the red after oil prices reversed gains
Oil prices continue to lose ground as the failure of OPEC+ to agree a new output plan, stoked concerns that members of the production-cut accord may break away from the agreement, potentially leading to uptick in global supplies.
The broader market rebound from lows come just as the Federal Reserve is set to release the minutes from its June meeting at 2PM ET. Investors will be parsing the minutes for clues on the likely timetable for when the central bank could start to reduce its monthly bond purchases.