TECH LEADS U.S. STOCK SLUMP BUT BOND YIELDS RISE

Tech shares led a slump in US stocks while the selloff in global bonds deepened, with the benchmark Treasury yield hitting a one-year high and debt from the UK to Australia coming under pressure, Vildana Hajric reported for Bloomberg.

The Nasdaq 100 bore the brunt of losses as investors rotate away from pandemic-era winners to smaller companies poised to benefit from an end to lockdowns.

Stocks popular with the day-trader crowd surged once again, with GameStop Corp. up as much as 85%. European shares were little changed.

Ten-year Treasury yields added as much as nine basis points to 1.47%, the highest since last February. US Treasury curve steepens as growth bets take flight.

Across markets, investors are betting on a sunnier outlook for the global economy, with US jobless claims data the latest to support that idea.

But they’re also staring down the risk that accelerating inflation is just around the corner and trying to gauge what that might mean for markets.

“Interest rates are rising for good reasons right now and it’s because markets and the bond market are expecting us to return to good growth,” said Chris Gaffney, president of world markets at TIAA Bank.

“The problem comes in when interest rates start rising for bad reasons -- and a bad reason would be that they expect inflation to start getting out of hand.”

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