US Stocks Fall As Bond Yields Rise

Wall Street stocks edged lower on Monday as rising US Treasury bond yields revived worries the Federal Reserve will accelerate its pace of interest rate hikes.

US stocks spent much of the morning in positive territory as investors looked ahead to a heavy week of earnings and economic data. But equities struggled to push back into the black after tilting into negative territory at midday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1 percent to close at 24,448.83.

The broad-based S&P 500 was essentially flat at 2,670.29, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 0.3 percent to end at 7,128.60.

The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose closer to 3.0 percent. Higher yields are a signal interest rates could be on the rise. And higher rates are seen as potentially dangerous to markets because they would make debt payments more expensive, and could steer funds away from stocks and into bonds. (AFP)