LDN - Business

Stocks and bond yields inch higher after wild tech reboot

[March 10, 2021] By Marc Jones

LONDON (Reuters) - World share markets inched higher on Wednesday after a stunning reboot in U.S. tech stocks, while the dollar and benchmark government yields both ticked up ahead of a key U.S. Treasury auction and inflation reading later.

It all seemed a bit subdued after Tuesday's roaring 20% surge in electric car doyen Tesla, 4% jump in the Nasdaq and biggest one-day gain for global heavyweights Amazon and Microsoft in well over a month.

Wall Street futures were fractionally lower, Asia bounced off a two-month low as China's markets shrugged off central bank policy tightening worries and Europe was helped by a new all-time high for Germany's DAX.

The dollar and bond yields ticked up too. Traders were focused on the U.S. bond auction and inflation data later, as well as Thursday's European Central Bank meeting where it is expected to respond to the recent jump in borrowing costs.

Mikhail Zverev, head of global equities at Aviva Investors, said Tuesday's wild moves in big U.S. tech underscored how volatile markets, which are increasingly dominated by super-sized passive funds, are likely to be this year as the world tries to reset after the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The winds are blowing harder now. The world isn't a more dangerous place, a mild increase in interest rates is not a cataclysmic event... but there is now the big-herd mentality with a greater propensity for rotations," he said.

"They are moving more frequently, they are moving faster and they are leaving a trail of inefficiency," making markets vulnerable to big swings, he added.

Gains in Asian stocks overnight came after Chinese shares fell to their lowest levels since mid-December the previous day on the prospect of tighter policy and a slowing economic recovery.

News that a $1.9 trillion U.S. coronavirus relief package was nearing final approval sparked a global spike in bond yields on Monday. That pushed the Nasdaq more than 10% below its Feb. 12 closing high, confirming a correction for the index.

The yield on benchmark 10-year notes nudged up to 1.557%, having peaked at 1.626% on Friday, after Tuesday's auction of $58 billion in U.S. 3-year notes was well received.

Yet many market investors remained wary, with the next tests of investor appetite for government debt due later in the form of a 10-year auction and then on Thursday a 30-year auction.

"Although the bond market has steadied a bit, pressures will remain," said Naokazu Koshimizu, senior rates strategist at Nomura Securities.

"It has priced in future normalisation of the Fed's monetary policy, the Fed's policy becoming eventually neutral. But it has not yet priced in the chance of its policy becoming tighter."

Graphic: Tesla in FAANGtasy land - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/
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A man stands on an overpass with an electronic board showing Shanghai and Shenzhen stock indexes, at the Lujiazui financial district in Shanghai, China January 6, 2021. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

INFLATION PALPITATIONS

Wall Street futures were just showing softness after the previous session's excitement saw Tesla and top six big tech names pile on a combined $350 billion in value.

Some investors see a real risk of an overheated U.S. economy and higher inflation on the back of the planned government spending boom.

U.S. consumer price data due at 1330 GMT is expected to show a slight acceleration in overall inflation in February, with analysts expecting further gains in coming months due to base effects from a severe economic downturn in early 2020.

The speedier rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in some countries and the planned U.S. stimulus package helped underpin a brighter global economic outlook, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Tuesday as it raised its 2021 growth forecast.

In foreign exchange markets, the dollar was supported by expectations of a faster U.S. economic recovery.

The euro eased as much 0.25% to $1.1871, not far from Tuesday's 3 1/2-month low of $1.18355. The yen changed hands at 108.70 per dollar, having hit a nine-month low of 109.235 the previous day.

The Australian dollar shed 0.6% at one point to $0.7672 after the country's top central banker rebuffed market chatter about early rate increases.

Oil prices, which have surged 30% since the start of the year, steadied meanwhile as concerns over a supply disruption in Saudi Arabia eased.

Brent crude futures recovered from an overnight wobble to sit at $67.45 per barrel, while U.S. crude futures hovered at $64.18 a barrel after a near 2 1/2-year high of $67.98 on Monday.

Precious metal gold, which has suffered as bond yields have risen this year, eased 0.2% to $1,712 per ounce after rising more than 2% during Tuesday's frantic session.

"There's an element of corrective price action after a very spirited gold rebound," DailyFX currency strategist Ilya Spivak said.

(Additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo; Editing by Jan Harvey)

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