Can the better tone in the stock market continue?
The S&P 500 has just enjoyed its largest three-day gain since March, with investors encouraged that signs of a cooling economy could encourage the Federal Reserve to refrain from raising interest rates again. But futures trading early Wednesday suggests the rally could be fizzling out.
Index futures slipped. Contracts tied to the S&P 500, the Nasdaq-100 and the Dow industrials all weakened slightly.
German bond yields jumped. New data showed prices rising at a faster-than-expected rate in a key German state, raising concerns about a eurozone-wide inflation reading due Thursday.
U.S. bond yields also gained. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield climbed, after settling at 4.121% on Tuesday.
Bitcoin pared some of Tuesday’s gains. The digital currency had jumped after a court ruling that could pave the way toward the first ETF offering direct bitcoin exposure.
Overseas indexes were generally higher. Germany’s DAX was a weak spot after the inflation data. Benchmarks in Asia rose, with the Hang Seng Index and Nikkei 225 making modest gains.
Oil prices edged up, as investors watched the path of Hurricane Idalia in the Gulf of Mexico and monitored reports of a coup in Gabon, an oil producer and OPEC member.
