US futures and Asian stock exchanges mixed, after the jump in US 10-year Treasury rates above the 4% threshold for the first time since last November.
The Nikkei 225 index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange closed around parity, down 0.06% to 27,498.87 points. Seoul up 0.45%, Hong Kong -0.71%, Shanghai +0.07%, Sydney +0.05%.
At around 7.30am Italian time, Dow Jones futures are up 0.11%, S&P 500 futures lose 0.48%, Nasdaq futures are down 0.59%.
The jump in US Treasury yields depressed Wall Street, with the sell-offs hitting hi-tech stocks above all in yesterday’s session.
The Nasdaq Composite lost 0.66%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.47%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied just 5.14 points.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are thus starting to end the second consecutive week of declines, for the first time since December.
The Dow Jones, on the other hand, is preparing to end its fifth consecutive week of declines, for the first time since May.
Fear linked to inflation and the prospect of more aggressive monetary tightening by the Fed continues to make market participants anxious, as they sell shares and US government bonds.
Rates on 2-year Treasuries are now just a whisker from 5%, exceeding the 4.9% threshold, rising to around 4.921%, while yields on 1-year Treasuries are well over 5%, up to 5.107 %.
Yesterday, in particular, the words uttered by the president of the Minneapolis Fed Neel Kashkari, who said that the American central bank “will continue to do what we are doing until it ends its Work”.