By NEW YORK, Feb 10 Reuters The SP 500 and the Nasdaq edged slightly lower on Wednesday as big tech stocks slid amid an ongoing rotation of portfolio holdings that gave a boost to energy shares and kept the overall market near record highs.
Stocks shrugged off remarks by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who reassured investors that interest rates will remain low for some time to spur the economy and jobs growth, but provided no new insights on monetary policy.
A change in market leadership is underway with the focus on big tech easing and sectors such as energy and financials gaining traction, said David Bahnsen, chief investment officer at The Bahnsen Group in Newport Beach, California.
Is the whole market still reliant on big tech as it clearly was last summer? I think the answer is increasingly becoming No, youre seeing a broadening of market leadership, Bahnsen said. You have over 75 of the SP 500 trading above its 200day moving average. Thats remarkable breadth.
The SP 500 and Nasdaq both opened at record highs but soon drifted lower, while the Dow set a new peak during the session.
A wave of selling in highriding Tesla Inc, down 5.3, and declines of less than 1 in Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc, pulled the Nasdaq down and weighed the most on the SP 500.
The consumer discretionary index fell 0.9, while information technology slid 0.2. On the upside, energy gained 1.8 and communication services rose 0.6.
Powell is reiterating the Feds…
