Wall Street headed higher as stock bond yields ease

Wall Street’s main stock indexes were set to rise at the open on Friday following a steep pullback in the prior session as bond yields withdrew from 14-month peaks and oil prices retraced some losses.

Oil majors Chevron Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp added 0.6% each in premarket trading as crude prices stabilized a day after a selloff driven by concerns over demand.

FedEx Corp jumped 4.2% after the U.S. delivery firm said quarterly profit jumped more than expected on higher prices and surging volume from pandemic-fueled e-commerce deliveries during the holiday shipping season.

Yields on U.S. 10-year notes, which have risen sharply in the past seven weeks on growth expectations, edged lower on Thursday to 1.687% after touching their highest since January 2020 peak of 1.754%.

Global stocks – except tech – cheer dovish Fed as global yields jump. Asian & European stock indexes advanced, while US Futures slumped. Bonds crash w/US 10y yields jump to 1.71%, 10y Bunds to -0.27% after Fed lifted growth & inflation outlook. Gold 1738. #Bitcoin gains to $58.4k pic.twitter.com/XoaTEO05JR

— Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) March 18, 2021

“The market is starting to sniff out that the rate in longer-end Treasuries is overdone and we are going to see a stabilization of rates which is going to be good for groups which are yield sensitive,” said Thomas Hayes, managing member at Great Hill Capital in New York.

Optimism over a $1.9 trillion fiscal package and the Federal Reserve’s promise to maintain its ultra-loose policy stance for years has accelerated a shift into economy-linked stocks, powering the S&P 500 and the Dow to record levels this week.

However, the Nasdaq is still about 7% below its Feb. 12 all-time closing high as technology and high-growth stocks have lost favor, with their valuations looking expensive with a jump in yields.

Wall Street’s main indexes dropped sharply in the final hours of trading on Thursday with the Nasdaq shedding about 3% on concerns about a month-long lockdown in Paris.

Several bond managers believe the recent pace of the rise in yields in the U.S. Treasury market has been unsettling and also worry the market could be viewed as disorderly if the momentum continues.

Investors are turning their attention to prospects that higher taxes could threaten the rally in U.S. stocks as President Joe Biden’s administration moves forward with its agenda and seeks ways to pay for its spending plans.

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At 8:18 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 44 points, or 0.13%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 12.25 points, or 0.31% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 97 points, or 0.76%.

Market trading volumes are expected to rise on Friday due to “quadruple witching,” in which futures and options expiries occur, and that typically also translates into elevated liquidity.

Yield-sensitive tech stocks such as Apple Inc, Facebook Inc, Netflix Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp gained nearly 0.6%.

Nike Inc dropped 1.5%, leading losses among the Dow components trading before the bell, after the company missed quarterly sales estimates due to shipping issues and a pandemic-related slump at brick-and-mortar stores.

(Reporting by Shashank Nayar and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)