By Lisa Pauline Mattackal, Purvi Agarwal and Carolina Mandl
(Reuters) -Wall Street fell on Wednesday, led lower by megacap stocks as U.S. Treasury yields climbed and investors grew less confident about the outlook for strong rate cuts from the Federal Reserve, while corporate news pressured McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) and Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO).
Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields reached a three-month high with investors reassessing the Fed rate-cut outlook over the next few months against the backdrop of strong economic data and the upcoming U.S. presidential election.
"What's driving things more than anything else is the backup in rates," said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager, Globalt Investments, adding the closer the electoral race gets, markets are likely to get more jittery.
Among rate-sensitive megacaps, Nvidia fell 3.9% and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) slid 3.37%, pulling Information Technology stocks 2.5% lower and dragging on the tech-laden Nasdaq.
McDonald's slumped 5.24% after an E. coli infection linked to its Quarter Pounder hamburgers killed one and sickened many. Coca-Cola fell 1.66% after the company reiterated its annual profit growth forecast despite expecting higher revenue.
The broader Consumer Discretionary sector dropped 2.22%.
"You also have to balance the fact that the U.S. equity market is expensive on a valuation basis, so we could (be) due for profit-taking," said Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), the first of the so-called Magnificent Seven companies scheduled to report results after market close, lost 2.53%.
At 2:07 p.m. the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 564.63 points, or 1.32%, to 42,360.26, the S&P 500 lost 81.21 points, or 1.39%, to 5,769.99 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 406.65 points, or 2.19%, to 18,166.48.
The benchmark S&P 500 appeared headed for its third consecutive daily decline.
U.S. markets are near record-high levels, but a combination of earnings, a changing monetary policy outlook and the upcoming presidential election will test the rally and could stoke volatility, analysts said.
Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said the central bank's fight to return inflation to its 2% target may take longer than expected, limiting interest rate cuts.
Boeing (NYSE:BA) dropped 1.12% after the planemaker reported a quarterly loss of $6 billion owing to a crippling strike. Factory workers at Boeing will vote later in the day on a new contract proposal that could end the standoff after more than five weeks.
Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) fell sharply before the opening bell but pared losses and was down 0.72% the day after the coffee shop chain suspended its annual forecast.
Semiconductor company Texas Instruments (NASDAQ:TXN) gained 3.20% after its third-quarter profit beat forecasts, while AT&T (NYSE:T) rose 3.56% after gaining more wireless subscribers than expected in the third quarter.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 4.92-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 82 new highs and 54 new lows on the NYSE.
The S&P 500 posted 23 new 52-week highs and 4 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 50 new highs and 81 new lows.