Wall Street ends rollercoaster week sharply lower

Wall Street ended a choppy week Friday with a broad sell-off. Rising Treasury yields drove investors to unload tech stocks.

Yields briefly edged up to their highest level since mid-July ahead of a key Federal Reserve meeting next week where investors will look for signs of any shift in the central bank’s timeline for tapering bond purchases.

Also weighing on investor sentiment: corporate tax hikes and the spread of the Delta variant.

Mercadien Asset Management’s Ken Kamen says the markets held up rather well this week despite the setback.

“All eyes have to be on Washington next week and that tends to make very nervous investors jumpy with pulling the trigger on profit taking. So I think the market’s actually doing pretty well here.”

The Dow lost a half percent Friday. The S&P and Nasdaq pulled back nearly 1%, with the S&P closing below a key technical level widely watched by traders.

For the week as well, the indexes lost ground.

U.S. Steel shares slid 8% after the company announced a $3 billion investment plan.

Also falling: drug makers Pfizer and Moderna. U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisers voted against approving a booster dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for those over 16. They then approved it for older Americans.

Robinhood shares rose 1%. Star stock picker Cathie Wood of ARK Invest bought nearly $15 million worth of shares in the operator of the platform that’s popular for trading “meme” stocks.