Wall St : Stocks slide; Financials rise as bond yields leap ;Jobless claims rebound

Stocks dropped at the starting bell, then rapidly turned mixed Thursday as rising bond yields, disappointing unemployment data and a spike in March manufacturing data fueled turbid early trade.

The Dow industrials shook off opening losses and defended a 0.1% gain on the market today. The S&P 500 slumped 0.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite veered 1.4% lower.

Utilities were in early motion, as PPL (PPL) jumped more than 5% to lead the S&P 500 after it agreed to sell its U.K.-unit, the largest power provider in that nation to National Grid (NGG) in a $10.89 billion deal. National Grid shares gained 1.4%.

Dollar General (DG) weighed at the bottom of the S&P 500, down more than 5% following its Q4 report.

MercadoLibre (MELI) hung out with Zoom Video (ZM) at the bottom of the Nasdaq 100. Utility Excelon (EXC) traded at the top of the index.

Among regional banking ETFs, the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) and the iShares U.S. Regional Banks ETF (IAT) each rallied more than 2%.

Small caps ran lower in early trade, with the Russell 2000 trading down 0.6%, although biotech Vericel (VCEL) and Signet Jewelers (SIG) jumped to near the top of the index. The Vanguard Russell 2000 Index Fund ETF Shares (VTWO) dropped 1%.

New issue Upstart Holdings and IBD 50 stock Williams-Sonoma spiked on earnings. Nike approached a buy point on the Dow Jones today, ahead of its third-quarter report due out after the close.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday indicated the Fed saw no need to push back against the present rate increases, with the Fed maintaining its current monthly bond purchasing posture at $80 billion in Treasuries, $40 billion in mortgage-based securities.

Yields were approaching pre-pandemic levels early Thursday, after starting 2020 at around 1.8%, which was down from about 2.7% a year earlier

First-time applications for unemployment claims rebounded to 770,000 in the week ended March 13, the Labor Department reported. That was a big step up from 712,000 claims filed in the prior week, disappointing expectations for a decline to 700,000.

Meanwhile, on the COVID front, the Centre for disease control and prevention (CDCP) reported that 147.59 million vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S., with more than 113 million shots so far successfully administered.

Persons who have received at least one shot represent 22.2% of the total population, and 12% of the population has so far been fully vaccinated.