Jeenah Moon | Reuters
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pulled back 78 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures lost 0.1% along with Nasdaq-100 futures.
The Dow eked out a 0.3% advance last week, snapping a three-week slide. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite had their best weekly performances since early August, advancing 1.2% and 2.1%, respectively.
Tech-linked stocks led the way last week. Meta Platforms rallied nearly 13% in that time, as traders cheered the company’s Muse artificial intelligence agent. Microsoft climbed more than 4%, while Apple and Nvidia advanced more than 1% each.
Those gains came even as Treasury yields raced to highs not seen in years, with traders increasing bets of more Federal Reserve rate hikes due to persistent inflation. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield scaled to a level not seen since 2007. The 30-year bond yield reach a 2004 high. The 2-year note yield also jumped around 17 basis points last week.
“The rapid rise in 2-year government note yields worldwide signals that major central banks need to raise their policy rates further in response to the inflationary impact of higher-for-longer oil prices resulting from the recent re-escalation of the Middle East war,” wrote Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research. “Unfortunately, these higher rates also exacerbate the outlook for large government deficits worldwide.”
Rates will be in focus again this week, with a slew of key economic data on deck. The August personal consumption expenditure price index, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, is due out Wednesday. New U.S. manufacturing numbers are due Thursday, while the closely watched September jobs report is set for release Friday.
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