Dow falls nearly 300 points at lows, threatens to give up weekly gain as government bond yields rise

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday was encountering intensifying selling pressure with less than an hour left of trading, with the blue chip gauge on the verge of giving up its weekly gain. Part of the blame for the downdraft accelerating was a rise of the yield in the benchmark 10-year Treasury note to 2.96%, representing the highest since around 2014. Meanwhile, shares of Apple Inc. were powering the decline, cutting about 50 points from the average. Most recently, the Dow was down about 256 points, or 1%, with the benchmark hanging on to a weekly advance of about 0.2%. Apple's stock, off $7, or 4%, also was dragging the broader technology sector lower, with Dow component International Business Machines Corp. share [: IBM] slicing about 20 points from the average. The tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index was taking the brunt of the intraday tumble among the main benchmarks, off 1.4%, at 7,138. The S&P 500 index was down 1% at 2,666, with tech and the consumer-staples sectors both off nearly 2%, leading losses in the broad-market index. The S&P 500 was holding on to a weekly gain of 0.4%, while the Nasdaq boasts a rise over the 5-session period of 0.5%.