Stocks rise, S&P 500 hits record; U.S. 10-yr yield jumps

7:02 pm Thursday, October 21st, 2021

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Global stock indexes mostly climbed and the S&P 500 posted a record closing high on Thursday, helped by gains in consumer discretionary and technology shares, while U.S. Treasury yields jumped.

The dollar also strengthened, boosted by better jobs and housing data, including data showing the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits dropped last week to a 19-month low, pointing to a tighter labor market.

The S&P 500 consumer discretionary index was up 1.4%.

“The market may be saying the supply-chain issues that are driving up costs are going to be transitory because markets are discounting mechanisms,” pricing in what investors expect to happen in the future, said Shawn Cruz, senior market strategist at TD Ameritrade, noting a decline in Wall Street’s fear gauge, the CBOE Volatility index.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 6.26 points, or 0.02%, to 35,603.08, the S&P 500 gained 13.59 points, or 0.30%, to 4,549.78 and the Nasdaq Composite added 94.02 points, or 0.62%, to 15,215.70.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index lost 0.08% and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.06%.

The dollar index rose to 93.76, up 0.17%. During the session it fell as low as 93.49. Last week it reached a one-year high of 94.56 on mounting bets the Federal Reserve will need to raise interest rates sooner than expected to quell inflation pressure.

The dollar was also supported as benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields rose to 1.683%, the highest since May 13. [nL1N2RH1XG]

Bitcoin last fell 4.68% to $62,904.60, but demand for the cryptocurrency has increased since the launch of the first U.S. bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund.

Investors are estimating that surging energy prices and tightening job markets will pressure top central banks to either raise interest rates or at least rein in the stimulus.

Oil tumbled, as a forecast for a warm U.S. winter put the brakes on a rally that sent prices to multi-year highs.

Brent crude fell $1.21 to $84.61, after reaching a session high of $86.10, highest since October 2018. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude settled down 92 cents to $82.50.

(Additional reporting by Marc Jones in London, Herbert Lash, Sinead Carew, Laura Sanicola and Karen Brettell in New York; Editing by Alex Richardson, Ramakrishnan M., Andrew Heavens and David Gregorio)