Late fade pushes S&P 500 index lightly below its record high

Stocks didn’t manage to hold on to the meager gains they made on Wall Street Monday, pulling the S&P 500 slightly below the record high it set late last week. The benchmark index slipped 0.1%. Losses for big banks offset gains elsewhere in the market amid some worries over how much banks would suffer following soured trades made by a major U.S. hedge fund. Gains for Facebook and other technology heavyweights helped limit the losses. Treasury yields rose. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note climbed to 1.71%. Crude oil prices ended higher.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

U.S. stocks stabilized in afternoon trading Monday and hovered near the record highs they set last week, but losses for big banks tempered gains.

The S&P 500 was down 0.1% as of 2:30 p.m. Eastern time, after sliding 0.8% earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 58 points, or 0.2%, at 33,129 and the Nasdaq composite was 0.8% lower. Both the S&P 500 and Dow reached record highs last week.

Financial stocks dropped to some of the market's sharpest losses amid worries about how much pain big banks will take following soured trades made by a major U.S. hedge fund. Stocks of energy producers were also weak after the price of crude oil edged lower. Technology stocks also fell broadly as China announced more tax breaks to bolster its own chip sector. Gains for Facebook and other market heavyweights helped to limit the S&P 500’s losses.

Most stocks across Wall Street were falling, while Treasury yields rose. A widely followed measure of nervousness in the stock market climbed 10%, but the VIX index, which shows how much volatility traders are bracing for from the S&P 500, remains close to its lowest level since the pandemic rocked markets a year ago.

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