Dow Today – Dow hits record high on cyclical boost ahead of Fed minutes; tech falls

* Salesforce.com falls as UBS moves to sidelines

* Intel jumps on Northland Capital Markets upgrade

* Indexes: Dow up 0.25%, S&P down 0.17%, Nasdaq falls 0.92%

Jan 5 (Reuters) – The Dow hit a record high on Wednesday as
investors swapped technology stocks for economy-linked cyclicals
that stand to benefit from a high interest rate environment,
ahead of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s December meeting.

Seven of the 11 major S&P sectors advanced in early
afternoon trading with value-oriented energy, financials
and materials shares leading the pack.

Tech giants including Apple Inc Google-owner
Alphabet Inc, Amazon.com, Meta Platforms
and Microsoft Corp fell between 0.5% and 2.2% to
weigh the most on the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq
indexes.

Growth shares were also under pressure from a recent rise in
U.S. Treasury yields, sparked by growing angst towards the
prospect of interest rate hikes by the Fed to curb inflation.

“We’re seeing a decided shift from technology as the yields
on the 10-year jumped,” said John Lynch, chief investment
officer for Comerica Wealth Management.

“You just saw some of those positions unwind but
nonetheless, higher market interest rates are weighing on
technology.”

The U.S. central bank said last month it would end its
pandemic-era bond buying in 2022, signaling at least three
interest rate hikes for the year. Minutes from the meeting are
due at 1400 ET/1900 GMT.

Salesforce.com Inc slid 5.4% after UBS lowered its
rating on the stock to “neutral” from “buy.”

At 12:07 p.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was
up 92.07 points, or 0.25%, at 36,891.72, the S&P 500 was
down 8.05 points, or 0.17%, at 4,785.49 and the Nasdaq Composite
was down 144.08 points, or 0.92%, at 15,478.64.

Intel Corp jumped 4.1% and was the top percentage
gainer on the Dow after Northland Capital Markets upgraded the
chipmaker’s stock to “outperform” from “market perform.”

The ADP National Employment report showed private payrolls
increased by 807,000 jobs last month, more than double of what
economists polled by Reuters had forecast.

The report comes ahead of the Labor Department’s more
comprehensive and closely watched nonfarm payrolls data for
December on Friday.

Peloton Interactive edged 0.8% lower after J.P.
Morgan cut its price target on the fitness firm’s stock on
expectations of softer demand.

AT&T Inc rose 3.8% after the U.S. telecom company
added 880,000 monthly paying phone subscribers in the fourth
quarter.

Meanwhile, Citigroup analysts said they now expect the S&P
500 index to touch 5,100 by the end of 2022 on the back of
strong corporate earnings.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.17-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a
1.38-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 59 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 69 new highs and 109 new lows.
(Reporting by Devik Jain and Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru;
Editing by Maju Samuel)