(Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks were mixed on the last day of a tumultuous week as the yield on 10-year Treasuries steadied near 1.5%.
Energy producers and banks were among the worst performers, dragging down the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index fared better amid gains for some megacap names, paring its weekly decline. The dollar strengthened for a second day, helping fuel a slump in commodities from oil to gold to copper.
Asian shares tumbled in line with Thursday’s rout in the U.S., and European gauges also headed lower. Global bonds stabilized after central banks from Asia to Europe moved to calm a panic that had sent U.S. government bond yields to their highest level in a year and spurred a selloff in stock markets.
Investors are getting increasingly worried that accelerating inflation could trigger a pullback in monetary policy support that has fueled gains in risk assets amid the pandemic. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says higher Treasury yields reflect optimism on the outlook for growth and officials have stressed that the central bank has no plans to tighten policy given lingering weakness in the labor market.
“Higher rates will create a situation where investors will not accept the kind of sky-high valuations that they’ve been willing to accept in recent years,” wrote Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak + Co. “Although what Chairman Powell said this week was bullish for the economy, it was not particularly bullish for the stock market.”
The Nasdaq 100 is headed to its worst weekly loss since March on concern that valuations for tech stocks that soared during the pandemic have gotten out of hand.
Elsewhere, copper slid the most in more than a month, falling from a nine-year high. Gold fell to the lowest since June.
Emerging-market stocks headed for the worst weekly loss in almost a year. Bitcoin fell below $48,000.
These are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 Index was little changed as of 10:50 a.m. in New York.The Stoxx Europe 600 index dropped 1.5%.The MSCI Asia Pacific index declined 3.7%.The MSCI Emerging Markets index retreated 3.4%.
Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.4%.The euro was 0.4% lower at $1.2128.The British pound fell 0.4% to $1.3963.The Japanese yen slipped 0.3% to 106.50 per dollar.
Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries dipped one basis point to 1.51%.Germany’s 10-year yield dropped three basis points to -0.26%.The yield on U.K. 10-year bonds rose three basis points to 0.81%
Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude fell 2.4% to $62.01 a barrel.Gold fell 2.5% to $1,726.76 an ounce.
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