US stock markets have soared to fresh records, but internet broadband carriers were hit hard by President Barack Obama’s call for tough net neutrality rules.
For the third straight session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average broke its all-time closing record, gaining 39.81 points (0.23 per cent) at 17,613.74 on Monday.
The S&P 500 added 6.34 (0.31 per cent) at 2,038.26, its third record close in a row, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 19.08 (0.41 per cent) to 4,651.62.
Obama’s statement against allowing large internet service providers to discriminate between customers on internet access and speeds was seen as a blow to an industry expecting to earn more by offering better broadband service and performance to preferred customers.
Comcast fell 4.0 per cent, Time Warner Cable lost 4.9 per cent, Charter Communications lost 6.2 per cent, and Verizon fell 0.3 per cent.
Nike led the Dow blue chips with a 1.3 per cent gain, while Intel continued its slide with another 1.0 per cent loss.
Among tech stocks, Amazon gained 1.8 per cent while Chinese rival Alibaba soared 4.0 per cent.
Merck shares dropped 0.9 per cent after the failure of tests for an accelerated hepatitis C treatment.
Shares of rival pharmaceutical maker Gilead, whose hepatitis C treatment is selling strong despite a $US90,000 ($A97,376)-plus cost, added 0.5 per cent.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 2.36 per cent from 2.31 per cent Friday, while the 30-year pushed to 3.09 per cent from 3.05 per cent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
