NEW YORK — U.S. stock indexes found their footing after a sharp early loss Monday and finished mixed. Technology companies sank for the third day in a row.
Stocks slumped in morning trading after big declines late last week. Some of the largest losses went to technology companies, including payment and credit card companies. Indexes in Europe also dropped as Italy vowed to ramp up spending that will increase its deficit.
A sharp increase in bond yields last week startled investors and prompted them to shift money out of stocks. Bond markets in the U.S. were closed for the Columbus Day holiday and stock trading was relatively light.
Banks, which often rise along with interest rates, continued their advance. High-dividend companies, which tend to fall when yields go up, recovered some of their losses from last week.
Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist for Invesco, said technology companies have dropped because investors are concerned that they are vulnerable as the Trump administration wraps up trade negotiations with Mexico, Canada and Korea and zeroes in on China.
“The U.S. has made very significant concessions (to those countries), and I expect them to do that with Japan as well,” she said. “The ultimate goal is to bring China to its knees.”
The S&P 500 index dipped 1.14 points to 2,884.43. The Dow Jones Industrial Average reversed an early loss of 223 points and rose 39.73 points, or 0.2 percent, to 26,486.78.
The Nasdaq composite sank 52.50 points, or 0.7 percent, to 7,735.95. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks slipped 2.60 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,629.51. The Nasdaq and Russell are each coming off their worst week since late March.
Among payment technology companies, PayPal slid 3.2 percent to $80.55 and Mastercard fell 2.3 percent to $208.26. Elsewhere, Microsoft lost 1.1 percent to $110.85.
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