Stocks Pare Losses; Yields Climb Amid Auctions

U.S. stocks pared losses while investors weighed the start of corporate earnings season and an influx of bond supply that loom as speedbumps to a roaring rally. Tech shares climbed from the lowest levels of the day after Nvidia Corp. said it’s offering the company’s first server microprocessors, extending a push into Intel Corp.’s most lucrative market. Intel shares fell more than 2% on the news. The S&P 500 was little changed in the wake of a third straight week of gains for the benchmark index. In Europe, retailers and travel companies led declines on the Stoxx Europe 600 Index.

Yields rose as the U.S. Treasury’s auction of three-year notes attracted slightly lower demand than the previous sale. The government will offer 10-year securities at 1 p.m. New York time and 30-year bonds tomorrow. While the U.S. recovery is accelerating, parts of Europe and South America are beset by rising Covid-19 cases and troubled vaccination rollouts. The rotation toward cyclical and small-cap stocks appears to have stalled as well, prompting worry about the strength of the U.S. economic comeback at the start of earnings season.

At the same time, massive government spending and central-bank stimulus could stoke excessive inflation. In an interview aired Sunday with CBS’s 60 Minutes, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell sought to provide reassurance that any surge in price pressures won’t last. Elsewhere, oil rose after the dollar retreated. Bitcoin neared an all-time high before a listing by the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange.

Stocks Pare Losses; Yields Climb Amid Auctions: Markets Wrap, Bloomberg, Apr 13