* Yields mixed as market eyes new trading range
* Oil pauses after hitting at one-year high; copper rises
* Wall St slips on surprise rise in jobless claims, tech
selloff
(Updates prices, adds comments and file photos)
By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed
NEW YORK, Feb 18 (Reuters) - A gauge of global equity
markets fell for a third straight session on Thursday as hints
of rising inflation led by higher oil prices and the strongest
copper prices in nearly a decade kept traders in check after
stocks hit a record high earlier this week.
Oil prices erased early gains, with Brent retreating from a
13-month high above $65 a barrel as buying spurred by concerns
that a rare cold snap in Texas could disrupt U.S. crude output
for days or even weeks petered out.
The MSCI's global stock index .MIWD00000PUS was down 0.47%
at 679.46. The index touched a record intra-day high of 687.26
on Tuesday, before erasing gains to snap an 11-day winning
streak.
Investors' appetite for riskier assets dulled after data
showed the number of Americans filing first-time applications
for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, even
though the labor market is steadily recovering as additional
fiscal stimulus and falling COVID-19 cases allow more service
businesses to reopen. On Wall Street, main indexes fell as investors resumed a
shift out of big technology-related firms.
U.S. stock indexes hit record highs at the beginning of the
week but gradually retreated following a rise in Treasury bond
yields, which led to fears of higher inflation. Those fears have
pushed investors to book profit on stocks with high valuation in
the S&P 500 technology .SPLRCT and communications services
.SPLRCL sectors.
"There was a lot of irrational exuberance built into things
heading into the year ... then we started to enter an
environment where risk actually became a factor once again and
notably inflationary risk," said Peter Essele, head of portfolio
management at Commonwealth Financial Network in Boston.
"Now it's a question of whether the fundamentals are going
to match the level of prices that currently exist in the
market."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 87.26 points,
or 0.28%, to 31,525.76, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 13.29 points, or
0.34%, to 3,918.04 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
80.58 points, or 0.58%, to 13,884.91.
European stocks fell after a clutch of disappointing
earnings reports from companies including Airbus AIR.PA and
Orange ORAN.PA . The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX
closed down 0.82%.
U.S. Treasury yields were mixed across the curve on
Thursday, as the market adjusted to higher levels on the longer
end of the curve that were reached this week on expectations of
extended fiscal and monetary stimulus and signs of an economic
upswing. "Clearly, bond markets are thinking the world economy can
normalize and yields can come off emergency levels. They are
moving away from only thinking of COVID and QE (Quantitative
easing) and are thinking about normalization," said April
LaRusse, head of fixed income investment specialists at asset
manager Insight Investment.
"But while that will be the general trend, we do think
markets may have got a bit ahead of themselves," LaRusse said.
The benchmark 10-year yield US10YT=RR , which touched
1.333% on Wednesday, its highest level since Feb. 27, 2020, was
last down a basis point at 1.2872%.
The dollar lost ground, ending its first two-day winning
streak in two weeks as disappointing labor market data tempered
expectations for a speedy economic recovery from the global
health crisis. The dollar index =USD was off 0.3%. Bitcoin BTC=BTSP eased off its record high of $52,640
reached overnight.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 settled at $63.93 a barrel, down
41 cents or 0.64%, while U.S. crude oil futures CLc1 settled
at $60.52 a barrel, down 62 cents, or 1.01%.
Copper surged nearly 3% to its highest since April 2012 as
Chinese investors returning from a week-long holiday added
impetus to a rally that has almost doubled prices from lows last
March, when coronavirus worries peaked. CMCU3 Spot gold XAU= was down 0.08% at $1,774.76 an ounce.
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Global assets http://tmsnrt.rs/2jvdmXl
Global currencies vs. dollar http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
Emerging markets http://tmsnrt.rs/2ihRugV
MSCI All Country World Index Market Cap http://tmsnrt.rs/2EmTD6j
Copper prices https://tmsnrt.rs/2Zuos1O
U.S. inflation expectations & oil prices https://tmsnrt.rs/3axCFkK
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