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Wall Street ends lower across the board as 10-year yield at highest level since 2011; trade eyes US jobs report

Last updated: 16:16 04 Oct 2018 EDT, First published: 02:17 04 Oct 2018 EDT

The US Treasury Building

US stocks settled lower across the board on Thursday right in front of the key monthly US jobs report on Friday.

The 10-year Treasury note yield reached its highest level since 2011.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 200 points or by 0.75% to close at 26,627. 

The S&P 500 slid 0.82% to settle at 2,901.

The Nasdaq lost 1.81% to finish at 7,879. 

The Russell 2000 small-cap index was down 1.45% to conclude at 1,647. 

In Canada, the TSX retreated 0.4% to trade at 16,005 as financial and energy stocks were given a beating. 

12:52 PM: Dow plunges nearly 250 points as 10-year yield reaches highest level since 2011

US benchmarks dropped into the red this afternoon as interest rates hit a new high.

The 10-year Treasury note yield reached its highest level since 2011.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank more than 240 points, weighed down by Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) and The Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD).

The S&P 500 saw a nearly 30-point drop by midday.

The Nasdaq fell close to 150 points, dragged down by Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) after GM raced past the electric vehicle maker in an automated driving test conducted by Consumer Reports.

The Russell 2000 small-cap index was down more than 1.5%. Software platform Telaria Inc (NYSE:TLRA) was a top decliner after reporting lower-than-expected preliminary third-quarter results and slashing its full-year guidance.

Up north, the TSX plummeted more than 140 points as financial and energy stocks took a hit.

10:00 AM: US stocks drop as government bond yields jump

US stocks traded lower on Thursday as investors’ demand for stocks was constrained by rising government bond yields and expectations about higher interest rates.

An abrupt sell-off in government bonds made its way around the world, with the yield on 10-year US Treasuries rising above 3.2% before jumping 11 basis points to 3.16%, after better-than-expected US jobs data from the private sector pushed up expectations of further interest rate rises.

The rise in yields kicked off on Wednesday after a new survey from ADP and Moody’s Analytics showed another 230,000 jobs were added to private companies’ payrolls in September.

Early in the session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index shed 108 points to 26,719, held back by Procter & Gamble, an interest-rate sensitive stock, as well as Nike, Home Depot, Cisco Systems and Visa.

The S&P 500, meanwhile, lost 11 points to 2,914, pushed down by Coty Inc, Estee Lauder Companies, Ralph Lauren, Gap and Western Digital Corp.

Selling over at the tech-laden Nasdaq was also relatively heavy, with the index dropping 68 points to 7,956, dragged back by Western Digital Corp, Dentsply Sirona Inc, KLA-Tencor, Applied Materials Inc and NetEase.

Up in Canada, Toronto’s TSX fell by 44 points to 16,027 as energy and financial stocks came under pressure. The Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks also slipped 10 points to 1,661, in line with the broader market.

7:17 AM: US stock futures point lower as trade war fears persist; traders eye tomorrow's jobs data

US stock futures are pointing lower before the bell as global equities take a hit due to continued trade war fears.

On Wednesday, Wall Street had a positive close, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing ahead by around 54 points to 26,828.

The S&P 500 added around two points to 2,925, while the Nasdaq  added around 25 to 8,025.

New data showed that job growth in the US picked up considerably in September to reach a peak not seen in seven months, sending a signal that the US economy still looks fairly robust.

Private companies tacked on 230,000 jobs last month, reaching their highest level since the 241,000 jobs added last February and far more than the addition of 168,000 jobs seen in August, according to fresh data from ADP - always seen as a pre-cursor to Friday's key non-farm payrolls report.

In futures trade today, the S&P 500 is down around 13 points, while the Nasdaq shed around 47 points and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is 104 points lower.

It comes as a report from Bloomberg today appeared to implicate the Chinese government in a huge hacking scandal involving some of America’s biggest companies.

China used a chip no bigger than a grain of rice to infiltrate the systems of 30 of the US’s largest companies, including Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), suggested Bloomberg.

President Trump has previously expressed his dismay at China’s alleged ‘theft’ of data from US tech companies, and today’s report is likely to add fuel to the fire.

In the UK, FTSE 100 is trading lower, down 75 points at 7,434, while the German DAX lost nearly 30 points and the French CAC 40 shed around 54 at 5,437.

In Asia overnight, the Nikkei 225 index lost around 135 points. Markets in mainland China remained closed for a weeklong holiday.

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