27 following dovish commentary from Fed Chair Jerome Powell that a stable job market was an essential goal for the central bank to start pulling back monetary support.Įasy central bank policies and reopening optimism have pushed the benchmark indexes to record highs over the past few weeks, but concerns over rising Delta coronavirus infections and its impact on the economic recovery could impede the rally.Īt 11:55 a.m. Still, the S&P 500 (.SPX) and Nasdaq are up 1.3% and 1.5%, respectively, since Aug. Tepid August payrolls data on Friday last week raised concerns that the economic recovery was slowing down. "People are still optimistic about the market, but at this moment, with the market at all-time highs, expensive valuations and with the economy showing signs of slowing growth, few investors are taking these factors as a hint to pull some money off the table," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth. Gains in Inc (AMZN.O), Facebook Inc (FB.O), Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Google-owner Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) and Netflix (NFLX.O) helped offset the effect of higher yields and kept the Nasdaq near its record highs.īanks (.SPXBK) rose 0.5%, tracking benchmark bond yields. The tech-heavy Nasdaq (.IXIC), however, hit a record high before losing steam, as a sudden jump in benchmark bond yields, which were at their highest since July, weighed on the sector that generally performs better in a low-interest environment.