A Nasdaq record, rising yields and a nervous Paris

Records on Wall Street, with yields alongside

The Nasdaq closed on Monday at a new record. The Wall Street Journal's evening report put it plainly: the index set a high while bond yields marched higher. That is not the customary pairing. Rising yields usually weigh on growth shares, and the Nasdaq holds a great many of them. On Monday the two moved up together.

The Journal's explanation was artificial intelligence. Its closing market report said US stocks rose as AI bets offset bond yield fears. A separate column, titled simply "Stocks Up, Yields Up", treated the combination as the story of the day. The paper's live coverage led with the 10-year Treasury yield rising and the Nasdaq jumping to a new high. By the afternoon it had already flagged the index as poised for a record as Treasury yields climbed.

Earlier in the session, a Journal piece argued that equities would not be dragged down by the spike in bond yields. Asia had offered some support for that view. In Tokyo the Nikkei rose 2.0%, led by electronics and machinery stocks.

The bond move was not ignored, however. On Tuesday morning the Journal described gold as muted, with traders weighing higher yields against the concerns that were driving them in the first place.

Paris under pressure

Some of those concerns were French. This is Money reported that France was in the eye of the storm as bond markets turned on Paris and the euro dropped to a 17-month low. The headline carried the phrase "reminiscent of sovereign debt crisis". The Journal's coverage of the US open was filed under French fiscal pressure raising the risk of contagion.

On Tuesday City A.M. ran a comment piece arguing that old fault lines were threatening to rock the eurozone. The Journal's currencies desk added a further consideration for the single currency: the euro might weaken if expectations ease for rate increases from the European Central Bank. Rate rises, not cuts, are what that market had been pricing.

Britain has bond questions of its own. Hamish McRae, writing for This is Money, said bond vigilantes are punishing the UK but doing savers a favour.

Energy prices sit in the background of all this. City A.M.'s FTSE 100 live blog expected London shares to rise on Tuesday morning, with oil trading around $100 a barrel after crude exports increased. In Washington, the Guardian and the Journal both reported on the Supreme Court hearing the oil industry's bid to block climate damage lawsuits; the Journal said the bid met scepticism from the justices.

Further afield, the BBC set out five reasons why India's stock market is sinking even as its economy grows. And the Guardian reported that the UK is reviewing whether to impose tariffs on Chinese car imports, to align with the European Union.

A busy day for deals

The largest domestic story was in the supermarket aisle. Sky News reported that Sainsbury's had held talks about a merger with its rival Morrisons. City A.M. and This is Money followed with the same news. The Guardian said the talks took place this year and concerned a multibillion-pound combination.

On the Continent, Euronews reported that Schneider Electric shares plunged after the French group agreed a record $22.6bn deal for PTC. In New York, the Journal said KKR had struck a deal to buy Gen II, an administrator for private-capital funds.

The City had smaller transactions of its own. Sky News reported that the Gulf lender BBK is in talks to buy a 20% stake in the broker Panmure Liberum. City A.M. reported that Virgin Media had taken aim at what it called a "stitch up" in BT's rescue of TalkTalk.

New listings told two different stories. City A.M. said that since SpaceX's debut, hopes of a blockbuster IPO season have ground to a halt. The South China Morning Post, by contrast, wrote of Hong Kong's big IPO haul. It also reported that the city is poised for its first listed property debt fund as banks pull back from lending.

Asset managers are positioning too. Schroders plans to expand in Hong Kong following its merger with Nuveen, the firm's chief executive told the Post.