GLOBAL STOCKS, U.S. FUTURES SINK AS TREASURY SELLOFF SHRINKS

Global stock markets and Wall Street futures declined Tuesday after a selloff in US Treasury debt eased, helping to allay concern about a possible rise in interest rates, Joe McDonald reported for the Associated Press (AP).

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.

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%.

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