Shares on Wall Street staged a late afternoon rally last Fri to lock in their second straight week of gains. The 10-year Treasury yield traded above 2.50%, its highest level since May 2019. The yield started the week near 2.15%.
On Fri, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 153.30 pts, or 0.44%, to close at 34,861.24. The broader S&P 500 index rose 0.51%.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite finished down 0.16%, just shy of positive territory. Among the Nasdaq’s worst decliners Fri were Zoom (ZM US, -3.24%) and DocuSign (DOCU US, -3.92%).
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note finished up 10.14 basis points (bps) to 2.4731%. Financial stocks outperformed as Treasury yields rose. Bank of America (BAC US, +1.53%) and Wells Fargo (WFC US, +2.40%) rose.
The most actively traded US gold futures (Apr) contracts settled down $8.00, or 0.4%, at US$1,954.20/oz. May silver, which is the most actively traded silver futures, fell 30.5 cents, or 1.2%, to end at US$25.615/oz.
The ICE dollar index (DXY), which measures the strength of the greenback against a basket of currencies, closed flat at 98.789 on Fri. Oil reversed losses following news that Yemeni rebels were stepping up attacks on energy and power sites in Saudi Arabia.
The front-month Brent and WTI futures closed up $1.62 at US$120.65/bbl and $1.56 at US$113.90/bbl.
European equity markets finished mixed on Fri. The UK FTSE gained 0.21, France's CAC 40 fell 0.03%, while the German DAX advanced 0.22%.