Equities rise with tech boost and yields fall with oil prices
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., August 21, 2026. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon
NEW YORK/LONDON, Aug 25 : MSCI's global equities gauge rose on Tuesday as investors waited for economic data and Nvidia's financial results, while bond yields declined and oil prices fell following a U.S. threat to expand sanctions against Iran.
Yields on U.S. 10-year and 30-year bonds showed a second straight day of declines as traders weighed the implications of U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's decision last week to expand Treasury buybacks.
On Monday, Bessent had warned countries to cut their financial ties with Iran or face secondary sanctions as part of what had been billed as "economic D-Day." However, oil prices fell to a one-week low on Tuesday as traders viewed economic pressure as less of a risk to oil supplies than a military escalation.
On Wall Street, the heavyweight technology sector recouped some of Monday's losses, ahead of the release of second-quarter results from AI chip leader Nvidia after market close on Wednesday.
NVIDIA RESULTS PROVIDE A FOCUS
"Technology is stronger today after the recent weakness," said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder, noting that much of the boost was from Nvidia whose upcoming results are on investors' minds.
"Nvidia has been weak and its price-to-earnings valuation has been down. There are buyers of Nvidia here looking for a strong earnings report. Nvidia is helping to pull up the rest of the tech market."
The strategist also said Treasury yields were "moving in the opposite way they have been moving which is positive for the stock market," but that the move was modest.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 160.24 points, or 0.30 per cent, to 53,577.40, the S&P 500 rose 24.42 points, or 0.32 per cent, to 7,677.28 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 171.11 points, or 0.66 per cent, to 26,151.30.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose 4.77 points, or 0.42 per cent, to 1,150.00.
Earlier, the pan-European STOXX 600 index closed up 0.35 per cent. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed up 0.56 per cent at 1,642.24, while Japan's Nikkei rose 328.34 points, or 0.50 per cent, to 65,856.43.
In Treasuries, the yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 7.92 basis points to 4.625 per cent, from 4.704 per cent late on Monday while the 30-year bond yield fell 6.9 basis points to 5.162 per cent.
The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 5.98 basis points to 4.176 per cent.
Among currencies, the U.S. dollar was virtually unchanged as investors weighed Washington's expanded sanctions against Iran and renewed efforts to ease pressure on longer-dated Treasury yields.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.1 per cent to 98.87, with the euro up 0.13 per cent at $1.1677.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.03 per cent to 159.13.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin fell 0.04 per cent to $78,893.30, after earlier crossing above the $80,000 level for the first time since mid-May.
In energy markets, U.S. crude settled down 3.12 per cent, or $2.65, at $82.36 a barrel and Brent settled at $88.58 per barrel, down 3.89 per cent, or $3.59.
Gold prices were slightly higher on Tuesday, after scaling a more than three-month high earlier in the session. The rally lost momentum near a key psychological resistance level while investors waited for the release of the U.S. Federal Reserve's preferred gauge of inflation on Wednesday.
Spot gold rose 0.31 per cent to $4,665.86 an ounce. U.S. gold futures fell 0.23 per cent to $4,630.00 an ounce.
