While Surging to Records, Stocks Experience Some Wobbles

On the surface, the stock market told a familiar story in the third quarter.Rising share prices of behemoth tech companies continued to lift the S&P 500 to new heights, shrugging off the war with Iran, higher oil prices and upheaval in the government bond market.But underneath the surface, there were signs that the sharp rise in both oil prices and bond yields had an effect on the market.A majority of the stocks in the S&P 500 — 311 of them — fell in the third quarter.

Utilities and real estate, two sectors sensitive to higher borrowing costs brought on by higher bond yields, were among those that slumped.And while the stock prices of many of the big technology companies rose, the rise was less than the increase in their profits, suggesting investors were becoming more cautious about such rapid profit growth continuing.“We did see a few wobbles,” said Kristina Hooper, chief market strategist at Man Group.

“The risk for the rest of the year is that we start to see more vulnerability in tech.”The S&P 500 ended the third quarter with a small gain of 2 percent, led higher by a 16.5 percent rise for the energy sector, as renewed fighting between the United States and Iran pushed up oil and gas prices, helping to pad the profits of the largest oil companies.Marathon Petroleum, Phillips 66 and Valero Energy Corp all rose roughly 50 percent in the third quarter.Although energy stocks led the index higher, the sheer size of the tech sector meant that its smaller rise, at 7 percent, had a larger impact....