NEW YORK/LONDON: On Thursday, U.S. treasuries led a broad-based bond rebound as concerns about the robustness of the economic recovery grew, while inflation fears faded, with U.S. stocks following earlier global falls. The value of the dollar had dropped. The outburst of pessimism follows a pattern that began earlier this week, and comes as central bankers grapple with concerns about the speed with which the economy recovers from the COVID-19 outbreak and its influence on inflation.
Chris Scicluna, head of economic analysis at Daiwa Capital Markets in London, said, “The (bond market) bears have given up and thrown in the towel.”
The yield on 10-year Treasury notes fell 4.3 basis points to 1.278 percent at 1400 GMT.
The steps come after the Federal Reserve of the United States said on Wednesday that while it had no imminent intentions to tighten monetary policy, it would start talking about it.
The number of Americans submitting new jobless claims increased on Thursday, indicating that the job market’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is still shaky.
The stock market in the United States was down. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 399.59 points, or 1.15 percent, to 34,282.2, while the S&P 500 index dropped 54.88 points, or 1.26 percent, to 4,303.25. The Nasdaq Composite, which is heavily weighted in technology, had dropped 215.26 points, or 1.47 percent, to 14,449.80. In Europe, stocks were down nearly 2%. At 92.33, the dollar index was down 0.34 percent. Gold prices rose US$5.705, or 0.32 percent, to US$1,809.11 per ounce on the spot market.
Brent crude was last trading at US$72.77 a barrel, down US$0.66 or 0.9 percent. US crude was recently trading at $71.3 a barrel, down $0.90 or 1.25 percent. (Editing by Kirsten Donovan, Angus MacSwan, Barbara Lewis, William Maclean, and Sonya Hepinstall; additional reporting by Tom Westbrook, Yoruk Bahceli, and Brenna Hughes-Neghaiwi)/n
