Bonds wobble. Stocks climb. Markets turn to Nvidia.
Treasury rally loses steam
• Asian bonds slipped after US Treasuries gave back much of their gains
• US 30-year yields held around 5.25%, while 10-year yields stayed near 4.70%
• Investors are questioning whether Treasury buybacks can keep long-term borrowing costs down for long
Stocks push higher
• MSCI Asia Pacific stocks rose 0.5%, led by technology
• Hong Kong gained 0.7%
• Samsung jumped 2.8% on expectations of a major shareholder return package
Dollar stays under pressure
• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%
• The yen hovered around 159 per dollar
• Japan’s rising inflation keeps bets alive for another BOJ rate hike as soon as September
Gold shines. Bitcoin breaks higher.
• Gold rose 0.4% to around $4,536 an ounce
• Bitcoin jumped 2.6% to above $74,500
Corporate watch
• Anthropic could match or beat SpaceX’s record IPO size
• Alibaba profit plunged more than 75% as AI spending surged
• Broadcom is seeking more than $60 billion in debt for an AI chip financing deal
What markets are watching next
All eyes now turn to Nvidia earnings and the Jackson Hole symposium next week.
The big question
Can Treasury buybacks really tame long-term yields, or is the debt problem simply too big to fix with buybacks?