Stocks Open Lower on Thursday as the Market Gives Back Some of its Pre-Holiday Gains

Stocks opened lower Thursday as the market pared some of its pre-holiday gains.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were each down 0.2% about an hour after the opening bell.

The major indexes rose on Monday and Tuesday ahead of yesterday's Christmas break, a positive start to the Santa Clause rally that investors are hoping for, as the U.S. market rebounded from last week's downturn.

Large-cap technology stocks were mostly lower early Thursday. Nvidia (NVDA) , Microsoft (MSFT) , Amazon (AMZN) , Alphabet (GOOGL) , Meta Platforms (META) and Tesla (TSLA) all lost ground, while Apple (AAPL) was fractionally higher. The iPhone maker is inching closer to becoming the first company to ever achieve $4 trillion in market value.

Shares of bitcoin-related companies were also down as the digital currency slumped. Software maker MicroStrategy (MSTR) , one of the world's largest holders of bitcoin, was down 3%, while cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (COIN) and bitcoin miner Riot Platforms (RIOT) also lost ground.

Bitcoin was at $96,000 in recent trading, down from an overnight high of nearly $100,000. Bitcoin has gained about 35% since the start of the year amid optimism that the incoming Trump administration and a crypto-friendly Congress will implement measures that benefit the digital currency.

The yield on 10-year Treasurys, which is correlated with expectations about where interest rates are headed, was at 4.63% this morning, up from 4.59% on Tuesday and trading at its highest level since May.

Gold futures were up 0.5% at around $2,650 an ounce, while crude oil futures were flat.