Profit-taking continues into month end and quarter end as the S&P 500 declined for a third straight day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 206 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 fell 40 points. The Nasdaq Composite fell 135 points or 0.6% led by weakness in AI stocks.

Oracle led the weakness down 5% on a downgrade to Sell after a big run up. All the big cap techs were lower except for Apple. A former large cap tech, IBM, jumped 4% after announcing the partnership with HSBC to create the world’s first-known successful trial of quantum-enabled algorithmic bond trading. Intel was up 9% on rumors of an investment from Apple after a $5 billion investment from Nvidia last week.

Interest rates rose following economic numbers. The first-time filings for jobless benefits were at a seasonally adjusted 218,000 for the week below the 235,000 that economists polled by Dow Jones had estimated and 14,000 less than the previous period’s revised initial unemployment claims. The benchmark 10 year yield rose 2 basis points to 4.17%. The 2-year Treasury yield was higher by more than 6 basis points to 3.66%. The 30-year Treasury bond yield fell a basis point to 4.74%.

Financials were quiet today, modestly higher. Energy has been the best performing sector this week with a draw on inventories and increased tensions with Russia. The price of oil was modestly higher today at a one month high. Gold was modestly higher while crypto currencies took a hit.

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