US Stocks Mixed Tuesday Morning

(AP) -- Stocks were off to a mixed start on Tuesday as a drop in bond yields hurt bank stocks but helped big technology stocks.

The S&P 500 index was up 0.1% as of 10 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.5% and the Nasdaq was up 0.8%. The divergence was largely due to the fact the Dow has more bank stocks while the Nasdaq is heavily weighted with technology companies.

Dow component Johnson & Johnson fell 2.2% after U.S. regulators recommended a pause in using its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine to investigate reports of possibly dangerous blood clots. Two other makers of vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna, rose 1% and 7% respectively.

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury fell to to 1.65% from 1.67% the day before. JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America each fell roughly 2%.

Investors will get a chance to look over the books of the big banks starting Wednesday, when JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo report their quarterly results. Bank of America and Citigroup report their results on Thursday.

Big technology stocks, which have fallen when bond yields have risen, were moving solidly higher. Apple, Amazon and Microsoft were all up 1% or more. Technology stocks rose sharply in 2020 as investors bet that stay-at-home Americans would shift even more to online buying and electronic entertainment to keep themselves busy in the pandemic.

Investors had little reaction to a report that showed U.S. consumer prices increased a sharp 0.6% in March, the most since 2012, while inflation over the past year rose a sizable 2.6%. The big gains are expected to be a temporary blip and not a sign that long dormant inflation pressures were emerging. The index rose 0.4% in February.