U.S. stocks slip; utilities fall as bond yields jump

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks dipped late Tuesday afternoon as a jump in bond yields weighed on utilities, but gains in energy shares and optimism that Greece may be close to a deal with its creditors limited losses.

The S&P utility index <.SPLRCU> fell 1.5 percent, leading losses among S&P sectors, after U.S. long-dated Treasury debt yields rose to two-week highs. Utilities and other dividend payers tend to compete with bonds as investments.

Energy shares gained along with oil prices. The S&P energy index <.SPNY> rose 0.6 percent, leading the day's gainers.

"Today the utilities are way underperforming obviously because people are thinking rates are going to go up sooner rather than later, but almost everything else is up," said Uri Landesman, president of Platinum Partners in New York.

News that Greece's creditors are close to finishing a draft agreement to put to the leftist government in Athens helped push the dollar to its biggest one-day loss against the euro since mid-March.

Shares of General Motors rose 0.2 percent to $36.26 after it forecast industry U.S. sales to finish May at the strongest pace since January 2006.

At 2:56 p.m., the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 9.41 points, or 0.05 percent, to 18,030.96, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 0.22 points, or 0.01 percent, to 2,111.51 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 3.90 points, or 0.08 percent, to 5,079.03.

Stocks had started the day lower, but soon pared losses.

Fed board member Lael Brainard said the economy's recent poor performance may be more than transitory, as the full impact of weak consumer spending, low investment and the high value of the dollar become apparent.

Shares of Macy's rose 2.3 percent to $68.35 after Reuters reported that several hedge funds have asked the U.S. department store company to consider options for its real estate, including selling some major sites and then leasing them back.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1,633 to 1,365, for a 1.20-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 1,624 issues rose and 1,100 fell for a 1.48-to-1 ratio favoring advancers.

The benchmark S&P 500 index was posting 3 new 52-week highs and 1 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 86 new highs and 40 new lows.

(Additional reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Nick Zieminski)

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