NEW YORK, March 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks finished mixed on Wednesday, weighed by a momentum in U.S. Treasury yields.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 5.14 points, or 0.02 percent, to 32,661.84. The S&P 500 sank 18.76 points, or 0.47 percent, to 3,951.39. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 76.06 points, or 0.66 percent, to 11,379.48.

Eight of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in red, with utilities and real estate down 1.72 percent and 1.49 percent, respectively, leading the laggards. Energy climbed 1.94 percent, the best-performing group.

An uptick in U.S. government bond yields weighed on equities, in particular, growth stocks.

The yield on the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury rose by around 8 basis points to trade at 3.996 percent in late trading on Wednesday, after briefly topping 4 percent earlier in the session for the first time since November. The yield on the 2-year Treasury note also advanced.

On the economic front, the February U.S. manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index) edged up to 47.7 percent from January's reading of 47.4 percent, the Institute for Supply Management reported on Wednesday. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had forecast the index to total 47.6 percent. Numbers below 50 percent indicate contraction in the sector.

U.S. equities have been under pressure recently amid prospects of more rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

For the month of February, the Dow shed 4.2 percent, the S&P 500 dropped 2.6 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dipped 1.1 percent. Enditem

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