U.S. stocks fall as bond yields surge

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NEW YORK, March 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks finished sharply lower as a spike in government-bond yields spooked investors.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 345.95 points, or 1.11 percent, to 30,924.14. The S&P 500 lost 51.25 points, or 1.34 percent, to 3,768.47. The Nasdaq Composite Index sank 274.28 points, or 2.11 percent, to 12,723.47.

With Thursday's slide, the tech-heavy Nasdaq posted a 1.3-percent loss for the year-to-date returns.

Nine of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in red, with technology down 2.26 percent, leading the laggards. Energy rose 2.47 percent, the best-performing group.

U.S.-listed Chinese companies traded lower with all the top 10 stocks by weight in the S&P U.S. Listed China 50 index ending the day on a downbeat note.

Rising bond yields continued to unnerve investors, who rushed to dump risk assets. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury jumped to 1.5-percent level Thursday afternoon, after falling to 1.41 percent earlier in the week. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond also moved higher.

The Treasury-yield hike came after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that the recent rise in yields has his attention.

"I would be concerned by disorderly conditions in markets or persistent tightening in financial conditions that threatens the achievement of our goals," Powell said Thursday at a Wall Street Journal webinar.

The Fed chief reiterated that the central bank would be "patient" before changing policy even as it saw inflation pick up, saying it was likely to be a transitory fashion.

On the data front, U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, registered 745,000 in the week ending Feb. 27, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week's revised level, the Department of Labor reported on Thursday. The previous week's level was revised up by 6,000 from 730,000 to 736,000. Enditem

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