STORY: U.S. stocks closed sharply lower on Wednesday, with the Dow down nearly 2%, the S&P 500 shedding 1.6% and the Nasdaq losing 1.4%.
All three indexes suffered their biggest daily percentage losses in a month.
A soft auction of 20-year Treasury bonds pushed longer-dated yields higher, with the 10-year Treasury yield touching its highest level since mid-February.
George Cipolloni, portfolio manager at Penn Mutual Asset Management, said bond investors were worried that U.S. government debt would swell if Congress passes President Donald Trump's proposed tax-cut bill.
"Interest rates shot up across the board. It went up over ten basis points over the 20-year and over the 30-year yield. And that's problematic. As we get through 5%, which now we are clearly through, it tends to gum up the works in the economy in terms of consumer confidence, in terms of the stock market. And it's one of the big indicators that we're keeping an eye on right now. How much further can we go through 5% or hopefully yields have peaked here."
Among individual stock moves, shares of UnitedHealth Group dropped nearly 6% after a report in The Guardian said the healthcare conglomerate secretly paid nursing homes thousands of dollars in bonuses to help reduce hospital transfers for ailing residents. HSBC downgraded the stock to "reduce" from "hold."
Shares of Target fell more than 5% after the retailer slashed its annual forecast due to a pullback in discretionary spending.
And six of the Magnificent 7 names finished lower. Alphabet was the lone exception, climbing more than 2.5%.
Also on Wednesday, the price of Bitcoin rose to its highest level on record, trading just shy of $110,000.
