US stocks mixed as Nasdaq drops more than 1%

Trader Sal Suarino, center, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, Sept. 15, 2014. US stocks finished mixed Monday as the tech-rich Nasdaq dropped more than one percent following a cautious report on Tesla Motors. AP

NEW YORK–US stocks finished mixed Monday as the tech-rich Nasdaq dropped more than one percent following a cautious report on Tesla Motors.

The Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 48.70 points (1.07 percent) to 4,518.90.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 43.63 (0.26 percent) to 17,031.14, while the broad-based S&P 500 dipped 1.41 (0.07 percent) to 1,984.13.

Morgan Stanley said it remained bullish long term on Tesla, but that the stock’s upward trajectory would be slower and bumpier than the market expects, in part because the progress of electric cars has been slow. Tesla tumbled 9.1 percent.

Other prominent tech stocks, including Amazon (-2.2 percent), Facebook (-3.7 percent) and Netflix (-4.0 percent) also fell. Analysts said some investors were selling off tech shares to raise cash to buy shares in Chinese online giant Alibaba, which is expected to go public on the New York Stock Exchange this week.

The mixed trade followed disappointing Chinese and US industrial production data and came ahead of Wednesday’s Federal Reserve monetary policy decision and Scotland’s vote Thursday on independence from Britain.

“People are just worried about what’s going to be happening this week,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at S&P Capital IQ.

Dow member Microsoft lost 1.0 percent as it announced it would buy Mojang, the Swedish company that created the popular video game Minecraft, for $2.5 billion. Microsoft said it plans to build the Minecraft franchise across different media platforms.

US-traded shares of Belgium’s Anheuser-Busch InBev rose 3.2 percent on a report in The Wall Street Journal that it has sought financing to launch a takeover campaign aimed at British beer giant SABMiller. Another big beer company, Molson Coors Brewing, rose 5.9 percent.

Biotechnology company Gilead Sciences dropped 2.6 percent as it announced licensing deals with seven Indian drug firms to produce cheaper versions of a $1,000-a-pill treatment for hepatitis C in over 90 developing countries. Gilead had come under fire from patient rights’ groups over the hefty price tag for the Sovaldi treatment.

Avanir Pharma shot up 85.3 percent after it announced that a clinical trial showed its treatment for Alzheimer’s disease showed reduced incidence of agitation and aggression in patients.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury declined to 2.59 percent from 2.61 percent Friday, while the 30-year slipped to 3.34 percent from 3.35 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.