Wall Street ends little changed as rising yields weigh on tech
NEW YORK (REUTERS) - Wall Street indexes closed out Monday's (Nov 15) session near the unchanged mark as rising Treasury yields dented the appetite for technology stocks, while Boeing shares advanced on signs of demand for its freighter aircraft. The technology sector was among the biggest drags on the day as US Treasury yields moved higher, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note touching its highest level since Oct 27. Higher Treasury yields tend to weigh on high-growth areas such as tech, as they discount future earnings from the sector. Bank stocks, which benefit from climbing yields, advanced with bond yields on the rise as investors positioned for the potential effects of the Federal Reserve's tapering of its massive asset purchases. "Wall Street is completely fixated over what is happening in the bond market. We are starting to see yields are rising and that will, ultimately, signal that there's a lot more nervousness that the Fed could be a little bit late to the game on delivering a rate hike and will be forced to react a lot quicker, given the inflationary pressures," said Ed Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA. "You're seeing mixed trade right now becau...
US stocks end week with solid gains
NEW YORK (AFP) - Wall Street closed the week on an upbeat note on Friday (Nov 12), brushing off data showing consumer sentiment fell to a 10-year low amid rising inflation. Stocks gained ground for the second day amid a sense that investors may have overreacted to the inflation scare on Wednesday, analysts said. The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average accelerated its early gain, rising 0.5 per cent to close at 36,100.31. The broad-based S&P 500 jumped 0.7 per cent to 4,682.85, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index ended 0.8 per cent higher at 15,860.96. The big news came when another multinational announced it was breaking up, this time pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, a Dow member and maker of the single-shot Covid-19 vaccine. The company plans to split its consumer health arm that sells Band-Aid and Tylenol from its pharmaceutical division - the latest in a growing trend of corporate spin offs, that include General Electric and Japan's Toshiba. J&J shares leapt initially and closed with a modest 1.2 per cent gain. Meanwhile, a survey from the University of Michigan released on Friday said consumer sentiment fell to a 10-year low amid concerns that growing inflation...
Korea inflation hits highest since 2012 as economy recovers
(BLOOMBERG) - South Korea's inflation rose to its highest since 2012 last month as the economy's rebound gathered pace and as last year's drop in prices offered support. Inflation from a year earlier reached 2.6 per cent from April's 2.3 per cent, data from the statistics office showed on Wednesday. Economists had also expected consumer prices to rise 2.6 per cent. Inflation is rising globally as surging commodity costs feed into higher consumer prices and trigger debates about when central banks might start to raise interest rates again. For the Bank of Korea, faster price gains also reflect a broadening economic recovery that adds pressure on the bank to normalise monetary policy. The reading marks the second straight month the headline inflation exceeded the central bank's 2 per cent target. The rise was partly buoyed by the negative reading in May last year. Key Insights The Bank of Korea last week raised its forecast for this year's inflation to 1.8 per cent from 1.3 per cent, but kept its outlook for next year unchanged at 1.4 per cent. Governor Lee Ju-yeol flagged the need for an "orderly" exit from record low interest rates to mitigate financial risks. The government will i...