Global stock markets, US futures sink after Treasury selloff eases

Global stock markets and Wall Street futures declined on Tuesday after a selloff in the US Treasury debt eased, helping to allay concern about a possible rise in interest rates.

Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong closed lower and Frankfurt retreated in early trading. London opened higher. Overnight, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index climbed 2.4%, recovering most of its losses from the past week.

That came after a Treasury selloff abated after pushing yields to their highest level in a year. That helped to dampen concerns about a possible rise in interest rates and downward pressure on the US economic recovery.Investors “appear to be taking a breather” after Monday’s recovery, Jeffrey Halley of Oanda said in a report.

Also Tuesday, Australia’s central bank left its policy unchanged at its March meeting.

Japan reported employment rose despite a state of emergency to cope with renewed coronavirus outbreaks and South Korea reported higher factory output.

In early trading, the DAX in Frankfurt lost 0.1% to 14,005.48. The FTSE 100 in London gained 0.2% to 6,599.62 and the CAC 40 in Paris added less than 0.1% to 5,795.71.

On Wall Street, futures for the S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were off 0.5%.

On Monday, the Dow gained 2% and the Nasdaq composite climbed 3%.

In Asian trading, the Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.2% to 3,508.50 and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo declined 0.9% to 29,408.17. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong shed 1.2% to 29,095.86.

The Kospi in Seoul advanced 1% to 3,043.87 after the government reported factory production increased by a better-than-forecast 7.5% in January over a year earlier, up from December’s 2.5%.

The S&P-ASX 200 in Sydney was off 0.4% at 6,762.30. India’s Sensex rose 0.4% to 50,059.80. New Zealand and Southeast Asian markets rose.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury, or the difference between its market price and the payout at maturity, fell to 1.43%.

On Tuesday, it declined further to 1.41%.

Stocks turned lower in late February after a rapid rise in bond yields, caused by a fall in their market price, fueled inflation concerns. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed as high as 1.5%.

Bond yields influence rates on mortgages and other borrowing.

They have climbed as investors bet coronavirus vaccination efforts would get economic growth back on track. That fueled concerns about inflation, which would erode the value of bond payouts.

Investors are looking for more information about the U.S. economic outlook when Federal Reserve officials deliver speeches this week. Lael Brainard, an advocate for looser monetary policies, will give a monetary policy speech Tuesday and Fed Chair Jerome Powell speaks Thursday.

They also are watching Washington after the House of Representatives approved President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion aid package and sent it to the Senate. It includes one-time payments to the public and aid to struggling businesses and local governments.

Johnson & Johnson rose 0.5% after the Food and Drug Administration approved the company’s coronavirus vaccine. It doesn’t require extremely cold refrigeration like the ones made by Moderna and Pfizer.

In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude fell 58 to $60.06 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract sank 86 cents to $60.64 on Monday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, retreated 68 cents to $63.01 per barrel in London. It declined 73 cents the previous session to $63.69 per barrel.

The dollar advanced to 106.85 yen from Monday’s 106.81 yen. The euro fell to $1.2013 from $1.2047.

Japanese stocks reversed course to close lower on Tuesday, as some investors cashed in on the indexes’ sharp rally in the run-up to the fiscal year-end this month.

Investors will close their books as the fiscal year ends on the last day of March and many market participants are looking to book profits from the Nikkei’s 87% rally in the past year that propelled it to a more than three-decade high.

The Nikkei 225 Index ended 0.86% lower at 29,408.17, while the broader Topix edged down 0.4% to 1,894.85. Both the benchmark Nikkei and the Topix had gained more than 2% on Monday.

“I don’t expect stocks to enter a downtrend, but we have risen so far that it will take at least a month for the markets to consolidate,” said Kiyoshi Ishigane, chief fund manager at Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co.

“The Nikkei could move sideways this month because it is right before the end of the fiscal year, but it is possible markets will break out next month.”

Among individual shares, Z Holdings Corp fell 4.82%, making it the biggest loser on the Nikkei index even as SoftBank’s internet subsidiary outlined plans to invest 500 billion yen ($4.7 billion) in technology over five years.

Ship builder Mitsui E&S Holdings, down 4.09%, was the second-biggest loser on the index, followed by NTT Data, which fell 3.87%.

Sea and air transportation sectors were the biggest losers among the 33 sector sub-indexes on the Tokyo exchange. ANA Holdings fell 2.13% and Japan Airlines lost 3.48%.