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Stocks mostly climb after recent selloff; yields fall, yen rises

Tan KW
Publish date: Fri, 26 Jul 2024, 08:43 AM
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NEW YORK World stock indexes mostly rose on Thursday, with the S&P 500 gaining after the previous day's megacap-led selloff, while Treasury yields fell as a solid reading on U.S. economic growth failed to alter expectations for an interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve.

The Japanese yen rallied for a fourth straight session against the dollar, as investors unwound their long-running bets against the currency ahead of a Bank of Japan meeting next week.

The U.S. dollar trimmed losses after the U.S. GDP data.

Data showed the U.S. economy grew faster than expected in the second quarter amid solid gains in consumer spending and business investment, but inflation pressures subsided.

The Fed is scheduled to hold its next policy meeting at the end of July. Markets see only a slight chance for a rate cut of at least 25 basis points (bps) at that meeting, but are fully pricing in a September cut, according to CME's FedWatch Tool.

"We're setting up for a Goldilocks-type situation where we feared that the housing sector is really rolling over and that might cause GDP to go to at least zero, but that doesn't seem like it's going to happen and then the Fed will finally cut, late, but still cut," said Jay Hatfield, CEO at Infrastructure Capital Advisors in New York.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 329.50 points, or 0.83%, to 40,183.37, the S&P 500 gained 17.77 points, or 0.33%, to 5,445.24 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 36.63 points, or 0.21%, to 17,379.04.

Tesla shares were last up 3.5%. Shares of International Business Machines jumped about 5% on Thursday after it reported upbeat revenue results late Wednesday. Nvidia shares were near flat.

Stocks fell sharply during Wednesday's session after lackluster quarterly reports from Alphabet and Tesla, and investors have been assessing whether a retreat in the glitzy megacaps risks spreading into a multi-pronged selloff.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe fell 1.40 points, or 0.17%, to 801.18. The STOXX 600 index fell 0.72%.

"There are a multitude of drivers at the moment, especially what is going on with the stock markets," senior FX and Macro strategist at BNY in London, Geoff Yu, said.

The yield on the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury note fell 6.5 basis points, on pace for its biggest daily drop in two weeks, to 4.221%.

A closely watched part of the U.S. Treasury yield curve measuring the gap between yields on two- and 10-year Treasury notes, seen as an indicator of economic expectations, was at a negative 18.1 basis points after steepening to a negative 13.0, its least inverted since Oct. 23.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.05% to 104.33, with the euro up 0.09% at $1.0849.

Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.04% at 153.93.

U.S. crude rose 69 cents to settle at $78.28 a barrel and Brent rose 66 cents to settle at $82.37. Spot gold dropped by 1.61% to $2,358.99 an ounce.

Earlier, Chinese blue-chips slid 0.6% to a five-month low. Hong Kong's Hang Seng plunged 1.7%, finding little support from Beijing's latest easing step.

China's central bank sprang a surprise cut in longer-term interest rates, only stoking further worries about the world's second-largest economy.

Iron ore prices fell almost 1% as China concerns weighed.

 


  - Reuters

 

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