U.S. Stocks Slip as Dollar Rises, Treasuries Fall: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks ended a back-and-forth session lower, Treasuries fell and the dollar advanced as investors looked past trade comments by President Donald Trump amid a fresh batch of solid economic data.

The S&P 500 Index fell to session lows after Trump raised doubts about the outcome of talks between his trade representatives and China’s negotiator. Stocks battled back to erase those losses before fading into the close. Energy producers rallied on merger activity, while Cisco Systems Inc.’s weak earnings took down technology shares. The surging dollar bolstered domestically focused small caps to a fresh record. Data on manufacturing and employment that showed economic strength lifted Treasury yields to 3.11 percent.

Recent evidence that the world’s largest economy will continue to pick up steam is currently just a consolation prize for investors, who are having to adjust to the highest U.S. bond yields in years as well as second-guess issues stretching from peace on the Korean peninsula to Italian populists forming a government. Looming over it all are trade talks between the U.S. and China, the outcome of which could cement the global growth story -- or derail it.

In Europe, the common currency euro was slightly weaker and Italian bonds dropped as party leaders sealed an agreement to form a populist government. The pound jumped but then pared gains amid conflicting reports over Britain’s future in the EU customs union. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced. Earlier in Asia equities rose in Japan and fell in Australia and Korea.

Elsewhere, the Turkish lira deepened its losses, while emerging-market stocks slipped.

Terminal users can read more in our markets live blog.

These are some key events to watch this week:

• Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester speaks on monetary policy at an ECB conference in Frankfurt on Thursday.
• Chinese Vice Premier Liu He is expected in Washington for more trade talks.

And these are the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• The S&P 500 fell 0.1 percent at 4 p.m. in New York.
• Cisco fell 3.6 percent and Walmart lost 2.4 percent.
• The Nasdaq 100 Index lost 0.4 percent, while the Russell 2000 Index climbed 0.2 percent to a record.
• The Stoxx Europe 600 Index increased 0.7 percent to the highest in 15 weeks.
• The MSCI Emerging Market Index sank 1 percent to the lowest in more than a week.
• The MSCI Asia Pacific Index declined 0.2 percent to the lowest in a week.

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2 percent to the highest in 20 weeks.
• The euro fell 0.1 percent to $1.1795.
• The Japanese yen decreased 0.3 percent to 110.77 per dollar.
• The Turkish lira sank 1 percent to 4.4595 per dollar.

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries edged higher to 3.11 percent, the highest in about seven years.
• Germany’s 10-year yield gained three basis points to 0.64 percent.
• Italy’s 10-year yield was flat at 2.111 percent.

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.2 percent to $71.34 a barrel.
• Gold dipped 0.1 percent to $1,289.88 an ounce, the weakest in 20 weeks.
• Brent crude was flat at 79.24 a barrel after topping $80 a barrel for the first time in four years.

--With assistance from Andreea Papuc, Sheldon Reback and Samuel Potter.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jeremy Herron in New York at jherron8@bloomberg.net;Sarah Ponczek in New York at sponczek2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Anstey at canstey@bloomberg.net, Natasha Doff

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