Dow falls 300 points to start second quarter as Treasury yields jump: Live updates

The Dow lagged on Monday, hurt by a group of stocks facing downward pressure.

The blue-chip average lost 0.7% in Monday afternoon trading. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite shed just 0.3% and 0.1%, respectively.

Home Depot led the 30-stock average into the red with a drop of more than 3%. Nike, Boeing and Honeywell were the next biggest losers, with all three slipping more than 1.5%.

Less than a third of stocks in the index were trading higher shortly after 1 p.m. ET. However, 3M was the notable outperformer in the session with a nearly 5% advance.

— Alex Harring

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.

• Micron Technology — Shares jumped more than 6% after Bank of America raised its price target on the chipmaker. The Wall Street firm expects demand for high-bandwidth memory technology will grow to more than $20 billion by 2027.
• Cameco — Shares rose more than 5% after Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of the uranium producer with a buy rating, saying there is more than 25% upside.
• Semtech — Shares advanced more than 6% after the semiconductor manufacturing company last week reported fourth-quarter revenue that beat expectations. Semtech posted revenue of $192.9 million, better than the FactSet consensus estimate of $190.7 million. It also reported a wider-than-expected loss of 6 cents per share, more than the loss of 4 cents per share analysts were expecting.

Read the full list here.

— Sarah Min

The company began trading under the ticker DJT — also the initials of former President Donald Trump — on the Nasdaq last week. Trump Media owns the Truth Social app.

— Alex Harring, Dan Mangan

The first quarter brought the largest share of record S&P 500 closes in more than a decade, according to Bespoke Investment Group data.

Nearly 2 out of every 5 trading days in the three-month period, or 39.3%, ended at new highs. It marks the largest percentage going back to the first quarter of 2013.

The broad index ended the quarter, which concluded last week, with a return of more than 10%.

— Alex Harring

Alphabet‘s work around generative artificial intelligence is getting unfairly pushed to the side by the market, according to Mark Mahaney, Evercore ISI’s senior managing director.

Mahaney has a price target of $160 on the Google parent, implying an upside of about 6% from last week’s close. He said the stock could trade as high as $200, which signals a rally of about 32.5% ahead.

“I think it’s underappreciated as an AI asset,” Mahaney said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I know we had some controversy … but the tool is extremely powerful.”

There is lots of competition within the AI space, Mahaney acknowledged. But he noted that there are not actually that many challengers because of the high bar for resources needed to work at this scale.

“Google is in this race,” he said. “But I think they’re sort of more perceived by the market as Gen AI roadkill, rather than as a derivative play.”

Mahaney said he would prefer Alphabet to Facebook parent Meta from a stock perspective. However, Amazon remains his top pick.

— Alex Harring

Manufacturing in the U.S. expanded in March for the first time in 17 months, according to the ISM reading on the sector released Monday.

The ISM manufacturing index rose to 50.3, up from 47.8 in February and better than the 48.1 Dow Jones consensus estimate. The index measures the percentage of companies reporting expansion against contraction, so anything over 50 indicates growth.

Production posted the biggest gain, rising 6.2 points to 54.6, while prices also accelerated to 55.8, an increase of 3.3 points. The employment gauge increased 1.5 points but was still in contraction at 47.4.

— Jeff Cox

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Friday that recent economic data is giving policymakers a cushion as they contemplate when to begin cutting interest rates.

“That means we don’t need to be in a hurry to cut,” the Fed chief said during an interview at the San Francisco Fed with public radio’s “Marketplace” program, according to a Reuters account. “You won’t see us overreacting,” he added.

The remarks came the same day that the Commerce Department’s reading on the personal consumption expenditures price index showed a 12-month inflation rate of 2.5%, or 2.8% at core when excluding the volatile food and energy component. The Fed prefers the PCE gauge when it looks at inflation, and particularly focuses on the core level as a longer-term guide.

Powell said the report was “what we were expecting,” and followed other readings on labor and broader growth that show the U.S. economy on solid footing. However, the Fed targets 2% inflation, meaning the current levels are on the high side.

— Jeff Cox

Check out some of the companies making headlines in premarket trading.

• Micron Technology — Shares ticked up roughly 1.1% after Bank of America increased its price target on the chipmaker, with analysts forecasting high-bandwidth memory technology demand will grow to more than $20 billion by 2027.

• 3M — Shares of the manufacturer rose nearly 3% Monday. 3M completed its spinoff of health-care company Solventum and announced a $10 billion settlement with public water suppliers in a chemicals lawsuit that had received final approval.

• Devon Energy — The oil and gas producer added 1.4% on the back of a Wells Fargo upgrade to overweight from equal weight. Wells Fargo expects the company to turn a corner soon and says the stock is priced at a good entry point for investors.

Read the full list here.

— Brian Evans

Tesla shares were up nearly 1% in the premarket after the company’s website showed prices for Model Y vehicles in the U.S. had been increased by $1,000. The base model will cost $44,990, while the long range version is priced at $49,990.

Tesla has been under pressure amid waning EV demand, with the stock down nearly 30% year to date.

— Fred Imbert

Gold prices extended their rally on Monday, scaling to a new record.

The optimism was helped by U.S. interest rate cut expectations and bullion’s appeal as a safe haven asset.

Spot gold added 1.32% to trade at $2,265.53 per ounce. U.S. gold futures rose more than 2% to trade at $2,286.39 per ounce.

“I think it’s a really exciting moment in gold,” said World Gold Council’s market strategist Joseph Cavatoni. “What’s really driving it is, I think, many market speculators really getting that confidence and comfort [in] the Fed cuts,” he said.

Gold prices tend to share an inverse relationship with interest rates.

— Lee Ying Shan

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell 1.5% to last trade at 39,762.85, falling below the 40,000 mark for the first time in 12 days.

The index had rallied to 40,000 in early March and has hit multiple record highs since. It had even crossed 41,000 to hit an all-time high of 41,087.75 on March 22.

This comes after the Bank of Japan ended its negative interest rates regime in mid-March, along with other unconventional easing tools aimed at reflating Japan’s economy.

The Japanese yen traded at 151.29 to the U.S. dollar after hitting a 34-year low of 151.97 last week.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

South Korea’s factory activity slipped into contraction territory in March, following two straight months of expansion.

The country’s purchasing manager’s index came in at 49.8, down from 50.7 in February.

S&P Global wrote in its report that panel members largely attributed this to subdued demand and downgraded investment plans.

It also added that “a number of firms mentioned that sales remained muted amid weakness in the domestic economy in particular.”

— Lim Hui Jie

Business optimism among large Japanese manufacturers fell in the first quarter, according to the Bank of Japan’s Tankan survey, with the gauge at +11 compared with +12 in the last survey.

Economists polled by Reuters expected a +10 reading for large manufacturers.

However, optimism among nonmanufacturers rose to its highest level since August 1991, with the Tankan gauge at +34 compared with +30 in the fourth quarter and beating Reuters expectations of +33.

The Tankan survey is also monitored by the BOJ when formulating monetary policy.

— Lim Hui Jie

China’s factory activity expanded in March, snapping a five-month streak in contraction territory and surprising expectations.

The country’s manufacturing purchasing manager’s index came in at 50.8, according to official data.

This compares with the 49.1 seen in February and the 49.9 expected by the Reuters poll, which represents a contractionary figure.

Separately, nonmanufacturing PMI rose to 53.0, up from the 51.4 seen in January.

— Lim Hui Jie

Wall Street is coming off another winning quarter and month as excitement around artificial intelligence shows no signs of dwindling and investors are ready for the start of a Federal Reserve cutting cycle later this year.

Take a look at where the major averages stand as the second quarter kicks off.

Dow Jones Industrial Average:

• Rose 2.1% in March for its fifth straight winning month for the first time since August 2020
• Gained 5.6% in the first quarter

S&P 500:

• Added 3.1% in March
• Jumped 10.2% in the quarter for its best first-quarter performance since 2019

Nasdaq Composite:

• Edged up 1.8% in March
• Rallied 9.1% in the first quarter

— Samantha Subin, Chris Hayes