Dow Industrials Fall More Than 800 Points; Bitcoin Touches New High — WSJ

By Caitlin McCabe and Gunjan BanerjiStocks finished lower Wednesday after a disappointing Treasury bond auction accelerated a selloff in the debt market.The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 817 points, or 1.9%, leading indexes lower. Longer-term U.S. Treasury yields rose again, with the 10-year yield approaching 4.6% and the 30-year rate surging above 5%.Yields extended gains in the afternoon after a $16 billion auction of 20-year Treasury bonds attracted relatively soft demand from investors, selling at a higher yield than traders had anticipated.The selloff in stocks followed earnings reports from retailers Target, Lowe's and TJX. Target cut its annual outlook, flagging softer discretionary spending and a decline in consumer confidence, while Lowe's held its guidance unchanged. TJX also maintained its outlook, assuming current U.S.-China tariff levels hold. Shares in all three fell.Walmart warned recently that levies would force it to hike prices, while Home Depot said it plans to hold the line. On Wednesday, Target said it aims to keep price rises as small as possible.Meanwhile, traders are monitoring the tax-and-spending bill in Washington. President Trump has ratcheted up pressure on his party to pass the legislation, which contains an extension of tax cuts and adds new ones. The bill is expected to increase budget deficits by about $3 trillion over the next decade.Investor anxieties about that bill, combined with Moody's Ratings stripping the U.S. of its triple-A credit rating late last week, have pushed Treasury yields higher in recent days.In recent trading:U.S. stocks closed near session lows. The Dow industrials' decline was exacerbated by a selloff in UnitedHealth shares. The S&P 500 was down 1.6%, while the Nasdaq Composite retreated 1.4%..Bitcoin climbed to a new all-time high for the first time since January, then pared gains.Bloomberg suffered an outage that disrupted some European bond auctions. The company later said terminal functionality had been restored.The WSJ Dollar Index weakened, on pace for a third day of declines.Japan's Nikkei 225 underperformed other Asian indexes. New data showed Japan's exports to the U.S. dropped in April, reflecting weaker demand for cars and machinery including chip-making machines.This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).