Global Market Today: Asian stocks rise after US tech rally, oil dips

Asian stocks posted a modest gain after a tech-led rally pushed the S&P 500 Index near a record as investors largely shrugged off concerns about bond yields at multi-decade highs.

MSCI’s Asia Pacific Index edged up 0.1%. Earlier, shares climbed on Wall Street after a rally in Nvidia Corp. and Microsoft Corp. helped the S&P 500 Index close near an all-time high.

Brent held its losses from the prior session to trade around $100.30 a barrel.

Government bonds in Australia and New Zealand fell early Tuesday, after longer-dated Treasury yields climbed in the prior session. The euro fell to its weakest since May on Monday amid mounting political upheaval in Europe and fiscal worries, with a gauge of dollar strength closing marginally higher.

Read more: US stocks: Nasdaq gains 1% at close as investors focus on earnings

Stock markets have largely looked through the prospect of higher interest rates, elevated energy costs and renewed inflation concerns that have have sent global bond yields soaring. Instead, investors have focused on strong earnings, resilient consumer spending and surging artificial intelligence-related investment to drive benchmarks higher.

“Relative equity-market calm amid the bond market’s ‘perfect storm’ is understandable, given accelerating economic growth and the AI boom’s rate insensitivity,” said Lisa Shalett at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.

Elsewhere, US President Donald Trump is preparing to ease limits restricting the use of a tax-exempt variety of diesel, his latest bid to pare costs for the essential fuel.

Focus also remains on the bond market as Treasuries came under renewed pressure Monday, pushing longer-dated yields to fresh multi-decade peaks as bonds extended their monthslong slide.

Both the 10-, and 30-year yields rose at least 7 basis points to 5.34% and 5.7%, respectively, reaching the highest levels since 2002 in the New York session. Shorter-dated Treasuries climbed some 2 to 4 basis points.

Investors remain wary of calling a top in yields after a steady march higher from mid-August as the economy expands amid booming AI infrastructure spending, while elevated inflation sustains the prospect of further Federal Reserve rate hikes. A report on US services on Monday showed cost pressures grew the most in more than four years last month.

In stocks, market breadth remains one of the biggest concerns for investors. The percentage of US stocks trading above their 10-, 50- and 200-day moving averages dropped to levels last seen in March.

“We need to see interest rates and oil to come down, but at this point of time it’s not happening and the market internals are getting worse,” said Craig Johnson, chief market technician at Piper Sandler. “That’s going to be a headwind for the market.”
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