Yields at decade highs, and Wall Street sees no end to it

The bond rout deepens

Government bond yields rose again on Tuesday, with the Wall Street Journal reporting global sovereign yields at multiyear highs and US Treasury yields at levels last seen a decade ago. Treasury yields had cooled from their early highs during the session, according to one WSJ report, but the direction of the week has been one way. The paper's canvass of dealers and investors produced a blunt headline: Wall Street sees no end in sight to the selloff.

In London the pressure arrived with a domestic accent. This is Money described a "perfect storm" for bonds and a Budget headache for Chancellor Healey as investors fret over the UK's debt load. The BBC gathered the causes into three words — oil, AI and inflation — and reported global borrowing costs at fresh highs.

Equities took the message. US technology stocks slipped as yields hit decade highs, and the Nasdaq-heavy end of the market was where the selling concentrated. Hong Kong followed overnight, the South China Morning Post attributing declines in the city's technology names to the US bond rout and a stalemate in the Iran war.

Gold moved the other way, gaining on what the WSJ called easing hopes of a Federal Reserve rate rise, helped along by physical demand. Xiaomi, reporting an earnings slump, said it was in no rush to turn its vast spending on artificial intelligence into profits — a line delivered into precisely the market that is now repricing the cost of long-dated money.

Oil, Hormuz and a truce that expired

The energy leg of the story began earlier in the week, with oil prices and Treasury yields both climbing on Middle East concerns and Iran tensions. By Tuesday the WSJ had oil holding above $90 a barrel as the bond rout deepened, and the Iran truce expiring as US tech stocks fell.

On Wednesday morning City A.M. reported that the FTSE 100 was set to open lower, with oil jumping after President Trump claimed the Strait of Hormuz. The claim, whatever it amounts to in practice, arrived at the same time as the lapsed truce and an equity market already unsettled by yields.

Separately, and against that backdrop, Trump hit pause on his threatened tariffs on Canada. Euronews reported a last-minute deal to delay 50% US tariffs on Canadian imports, struck after a midnight showdown as the two sides met to sidestep the tariff blitz. The BBC said Trump had paused the new tariffs and described the countries as close to a deal. The Guardian added a second thread from the same remarks: a hint at reviving the Keystone XL oil pipeline project.

Listings, stakes and sales

Hong Kong supplied the week's clearest evidence that primary markets are still functioning. HKEX reported profit jumping to a record high on surging IPOs and turnover, beating market estimates. The Chinese robotics group Unitree soared in its stock market debut, the BBC reported. Beijing, meanwhile, urged mainland insurers to invest in Hong Kong-listed ETFs, and the city's dim sum bond market reached new heights as a State Grid deal drew record orders.

London's conversation was more introspective. City A.M. carried a comment piece arguing that recent IPO tweaks are welcome but that the London market needs root-and-branch reform.

Corporate news ran to stakes and sales. Frasers increased its holding in Hugo Boss to 48% following its takeover bid, taking Mike Ashley's group to the edge of outright control of the German label. BHP raised its dividend, with copper described as the "engine" of growth amid the data centre boom. Poundland's owner is exploring a sale of the discount chain a year after buying it, according to City A.M. and Sky News. Marks & Spencer launched a pet food range in its latest attempt to capture customers' weekly shops.

Two footnotes. Nasdaq confirmed that 23-hour trading will begin in December with a new overnight session. And a consortium led by Jeff Bezos could become the majority shareholder in Liverpool Football Club within a year, the Guardian reported, with 1892 Holdings bidding for Fenway's stake.