By Isla Binnie
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Possible U.S. trade curbs on chip equipment weighed on tech stocks in global equity indexes on Wednesday, while Treasury yields and the dollar eased as top Federal Reserve officials indicating they were getting closer to cutting interest rates.
The Japanese yen rose sharply in a move suspected to be the result of the latest in a series of interventions from officials in Tokyo to lift the currency from multi-decade lows.
A rate reduction by September is seen as having a 98% probability, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool. Lowering rates is generally seen as a way to stoke economic growth.
“We are hearing a choral change in Fed speakers preparing the markets for a rate cut beginning in the later part of Q3,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.
Among the comments, Fed Governor Christopher Waller and New York Fed President John Williams both noted the shortening horizon toward looser monetary policy.
The benchmark S&P 500 equity index lost 69.64 points, or 1.23%, to 5,597.45 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 469.10 points, or 2.54%, to 18,039.74.
Chipmaker stocks slumped on a report that the United States is mulling restricting imports of technology to China, coupled with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump saying key production hub Taiwan should pay the U.S. for its defense.
MSCI’s gauge of global stocks fell 6.52 points, or 0.79%, to 824.69.
Shares of artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia, fell more than 6% after a rocky Asian session for Taiwan’s TSMC, which closed 2.4% lower.
Investors earlier this week had formed a cautiously optimistic view of a second U.S. presidency for Trump, who is running against incumbent Democrat Joe Biden.
“Many strategists have suggested (Trump) is bullish for equities, and I’m just not sure about that,” said Benjamin Melman, global chief investment officer at Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management.
YEN JUMPS
The yen has posted several outsized moves in recent days, appreciating sharply on Thursday and Friday from 38-year lows of 161.96 per dollar, sudden rallies that market participants said had the signs of currency intervention.
Bank of Japan data released on Tuesday suggested Tokyo may have spent 2.14 trillion yen ($13.5 billion) intervening on Friday. Combined with the estimated amount spent on Thursday, Japan is suspected to have bought nearly 6 trillion yen via intervention last week.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, fell 0.45% at 103.74, with the euro up 0.36% at $1.0936. Against the yen, the dollar weakened 1.36% to 156.19.
The weaker dollar boosted demand for precious metal.
Spot gold dropped 0.5% to $2,456.25 an ounce due to profit-taking after hitting an all-time high of $2,482.29 earlier in the session.
Gold, priced in dollars, has a strong inverse relationship with the U.S. currency, as well as Treasury yields.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes dipped 1.5 basis points to 4.152%, from 4.167% late on Tuesday.
Softer jobs data and easing inflation has brought Treasury yields down this month by boosting the odds of the impending rate cut.
Oil prices gained. U.S. crude settled at $82.85 a barrel, up 2.59% on the day.
(Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak and Caroline Valetkevitch, Editing by Sam Holmes, Kim Coghill, Arun Koyyur, Will Dunham and Gareth Jones)
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