NEW YORK: Wall Street stocks declined early Wednesday, weighed down by another rise in US Treasury bond yields and weakness in McDonald’s and Starbucks following negative news.

Analysts have pointed to uncertainty surrounding the latest push higher by US treasury yields, unsure if the dynamic reflects an improving economic growth outlook or worries about a resurgence of inflation and angst about the US budget deficit.

About 30 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.5 percent at 42,711.30.

Wall Street pressured by higher yields, earnings

The broad-based S&P 500 lost 0.3 percent at 5,832.61, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.5 percent to 18,490.09.

Among individual companies, McDonald’s sank 6.1 percent after US health officials said one person died and dozens became sick following a severe E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers.

The chain said it was temporarily removing the item from restaurants in some states. Most of the 49 cases are concentrated in Colorado and Nebraska, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Starbucks shed 1.0 percent as it projected that fourth-quarter global comparable sales would be down seven percent, with the weakness “driven by softness in North America’s revenues in the quarter.”