NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are drifting on Wall Street Thursday following a rocky week so far because of worries coming out of the bond market about the U.S. government's debt.
The S&P 500 was mostly unchanged in morning trading, coming off a sharp loss that has it potentially heading for its worst week in two months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 43 points, or 0.1%, as of 10:23 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.5% higher.
Technology stocks were doing most of the heavy lifting for the broader market. The majority of stocks within the S&P 500 were losing ground, but gains for technology companies with outsized values offset those losses. Google's parent Alphabet jumped 4.1% and Microsoft rose 1.3%.
Treasury yields were holding a bit steadier in the bond market, which has been the epicenter of Wall Street's action this week, but only after several sharp swings in the morning. Yields have been on the rise in part because of worries about the U.S. government's spiraling debt.
The House of Representatives approved a bill early Thursday that would cut taxes and could add trillions of dollars to the U.S. debt.
Besides making it more expensive for the U.S. government to borrow to pay its bills, higher Treasury yields can also filter into the rest of the economy and make it tougher for U.S. households and businesses to get their own loans. Higher yields also discourage investors from paying high prices for stocks and other investments.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed as high as 4.63% before the U.S. stock market opened for trading, before receding to 4.59%. It stood at 4.58% late Wednesday and was as low as 4.01% early last month. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for action by the Federal Reserve, slipped to 4.00% from 4.02% late Wednesday.
The House's multitrillion-dollar spending bill, which aims to extend some $4.5 trillion in tax breaks from President Donald Trump's first term while adding others, is expected to undergo some changes when it gets to the Senate for a vote.
The legislation also includes a speedier rollback of production tax credits for clean electricity projects, which sent shares of solar companies tumbling. Sunrun dropped 37.7%, Enphase Energy fell 15.2% and First Solar slid 3.8%.
Health care stocks were also falling early Thursday after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it was immediately expanding its auditing of Medicare Advantage plans. UnitedHealth Group fell 1.3% and Humana was down 4.4%.
Wall Street had several economic updates on Thursday.
The number of Americans filing unemployment claims last week fell slightly. The broader employment market has remained strong, though businesses remain worried about the economic uncertainty amid a trade war.
In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across Europe and Asia. France’s CAC 40 dropped 1.1%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.2% and South Korea’s Kospi slid 1.2% for some of the sharper losses.
___
AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Yuri Kageyama contributed.