Panic-buying signs emerge—not selling—in Tuesday trade despite sharp tumble for broader stock market as yields climb

While the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -2.83% on Tuesday morning was suffering a decline of more than 2%, market internals suggest investors in the Nasdaq-listed stocks are buying rather than selling stocks. The Arms Index Arms Index, a volume-weighted breadth measure, fell to 0.426, while many on Wall Street see declines below 0.500 as suggesting panic buying. The Arms Index is calculated by dividing the ratio of the number of advancing stocks over decliners by the ratio of the volume of advancing stocks over declining volume and the Arms index often falls below 1.000, as the buyers rush into advancing stocks. The Nasdaq Composite COMP, -2.83% was down 2.4% at 14,620, the S&P 500 index SPX, -2.04% was trading 1.7% lower at around 4,369, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -1.63% was declining 1.2% at 34,452.