By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK (Reuters) -A gauge of global stocks was flat on Tuesday after details over China’s stimulus disappointed as investor focus shifts to upcoming U.S. inflation data and corporate earnings.
On Wall Street, U.S. stocks were higher as the benchmark S&P 500 bounced back from a drop of nearly 1% a day earlier, with a nearly 2% gain in technology stocks providing key support.
Stocks had dropped on Monday on increasing concerns about a wider conflict in the Middle East and as last week’s solid U.S. payrolls report caused a reassessment on the size and pace of interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.
Investors are also eyeing Thursday’s inflation reading with the release of the latest consumer price index (CPI), while banks are scheduled to kick off the corporate earnings season at the end of the week.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty and I wouldn’t be surprised if we kind of have a trading range, certainly, at least over the next month until the election,” said Eric Diton, president and managing director at The Wealth Alliance in Boca Raton, Florida. “We’ve got to digest some gains, we’ve had some pretty nice gains the last few months.
“Even if inflation ticked up, I still think the Fed’s behind the curve right now and is too restrictive.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 89.58 points, or 0.21%, to 42,043.82, the S&P 500 rose 43.77 points, or 0.77%, to 5,739.54, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 206.30 points, or 1.15%, to 18,130.20.
European shares closed lower, as a lack of details on China’s long-awaited fiscal stimulus weighed on sectors related to the world’s second-largest economy, such as mining and luxury goods.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed 0.02 point to 843.70. The STOXX 600 index ended 0.55 lower%.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index plunged 9.4%, its biggest drop since 2008, erasing some of the big gains made during a Chinese holiday, after government economic planner Zheng Shanjie told reporters that China was “fully confident” of achieving economic targets for 2024 and would pull forward 200 billion yuan ($28.36 billion) from next year’s budget to spend on investment projects and support local governments.
But a failure to sufficiently detail new or large measures sparked concerns about Beijing’s commitment to pull the economy out of its current slump.
The Shanghai Composite and blue-chip CSI300, both of which were closed during the holiday, ended 4.6% and 5.9% higher, respectively, paring earlier gains of more than 10%.
Longer-dated U.S. Treasury yields were slightly higher as the rate path of the Federal Reserve is recalibrated in the wake of Friday’s stronger-than-expected jobs report and ahead of the CPI report.
Expectations for a 25-basis-point rate cut from the Fed at its November meeting stand at 87.3%, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool, with the market pricing in a 12.7% chance of the Fed’s holding rates steady. Last week the market was fully pricing in a cut of at least 25 basis points with a 36.8% chance for another outsized 50 basis point cut.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 0.7 basis points to 4.033%.
Oil prices dropped, following a recent rally sparked by rising hostilities in the Middle East, as fears eased of supply interruptions from the conflict between Israel and Iran and a massive Gulf of Mexico hurricane.
U.S. crude tumbled 4.5% to $73.65 a barrel, and Brent fell to $77.24 per barrel, down 4.56%.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli airstrikes had killed two successors to Hezbollah’s slain leader, as Israel expanded its offensive against the Iran-backed group. The comments were released hours after the deputy leader of Hezbollah left the door open to a negotiated ceasefire.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose 0.07% to 102.55, with the euro down 0.03% at $1.0971.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.07% to 148.29. Sterling strengthened 0.03% to $1.3087.
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(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; additional reporting by Lisa Mattackal and Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru, Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Leslie Adler)
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