US Stocks Fall Again as Treasury Yields Hit Multi-Decade Highs

US stock markets declined on Tuesday as Treasury yields climbed to their highest levels in more than two decades, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average posting a second consecutive daily loss and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite also ending lower.¹²⁵

Market moves

The Dow fell roughly 130 points, a decline of about a quarter of one percent. sandiegosun.com put the close at 51,350.99, a loss of 130.52 points or 0.25 percent, while HDFC Sky reported the index closed down 131.59 points, or 0.26 percent, and Eurasia Business News put the close at 51,345.41, down 0.26 percent. BNN Bloomberg described the Dow as dropping 0.3 percent on the day, the steepest percentage decline among the major indexes according to sandiegosun.com.⁵³⁴²

According to sandiegosun.com, the S&P 500 finished the session at 7,671.18, a loss of 12.51 points, or 0.16 percent; HDFC Sky put the decline at 0.17 percent, and BNN Bloomberg described a 0.2 percent slip for the index. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 22.84 points, or 0.09 percent, to 26,797.54, according to sandiegosun.com and HDFC Sky, while BNN Bloomberg reported a 0.1 percent fall. Nvidia closed 0.7 percent lower on the day, according to BNN Bloomberg.⁵³²

Treasury yields climb

The 30-year US Treasury yield rose to its highest level since June 2002. CNBC reported the yield climbed to 5.613 percent, Invezz reported it reached 5.621 percent, HDFC Sky put it at 5.62 percent, and sandiegosun.com reported 5.59 percent on Tuesday. The 10-year Treasury yield also reached a multi-year high; CNBC reported it rose to 5.257 percent after briefly touching 5.274 percent on Monday, while Invezz and HDFC Sky both reported the 10-year yield at 5.293 percent, its highest level since June 2007.¹⁶³⁵

Eurasia Business News characterized the ongoing stretch of elevated long-term yields as the central difficulty confronting global markets, pointing out that sectors sensitive to borrowing costs—utilities, real estate and smaller firms—have felt particular strain. Invezz reported that yields pulled back modestly from their intraday peaks following remarks from John Williams, who heads the New York Fed.⁴⁶

Federal Reserve signals

CNBC quoted John Williams as saying a further rate increase could still be warranted before year's end, noting that "one further upward adjustment of the federal funds target range may be appropriate late this year." In a separate account, Eurasia Business News said Williams indicated the central bank was in no hurry to raise rates further, suggesting officials still had room to assess upcoming economic data; the comments reportedly pulled the market's implied odds of an October hike down to about 51.5 percent, from nearly 70 percent earlier that session.¹⁴

Michael Barr indicated he anticipates more rate hikes will be required to tame inflation, remarking, "In my base case, further policy adjustments are likely to be needed to ensure inflation comes down to target." HDFC Sky also quoted Austan Goolsbee as warning that letting inflation sit above the Fed's target for five and a half years amounted to playing with fire. Evangelos Assimakos of Rathbones said the bond market appeared more hawkish than the Fed itself.¹³

Economic data and global rates

The Conference Board's gauge of consumer sentiment dropped from 88.6 in August to 81.9 in September, a 6.7-point decline. US job openings also declined, with JOLTS data showing a drop to 7.079 million in August, according to HDFC Sky; BNN Bloomberg reported separately that employers posted fewer job openings in August. Per Eurasia Business News, forecasters anticipated the annual headline PCE inflation reading would hold steady at 3.7 percent, while the core measure was projected to tick up to 3.4 percent from 3.3 percent.¹³²⁴

The Reserve Bank of Australia raised its policy rate by 0.25 percentage points to 4.6 percent, its fourth increase this year totalling 100 basis points and its highest level in 15 years. CNBC reported that in Europe, Spain's yearly inflation climbed to 4.9 percent in September—its steepest reading since early 2023—while the European Commission's Economic Sentiment Indicator edged lower over the same month.¹⁵

Oil, gold and currencies

Oil prices moved lower even as Treasury yields rose. According to BNN Bloomberg, Brent crude dropped 1.7 percent to close at US$96.16 per barrel; HDFC Sky put the decline at 2.6 percent to roughly $96, while Eurasia Business News said Brent stayed above the $100 mark. HDFC Sky put the West Texas Intermediate decline at 2.2 percent, to $90.71 a barrel, while Eurasia Business News reported a $2.04 drop, or 2.16 percent, to $90.58, linking the fall partly to a major Saudi pipeline resuming operations and reports that Iran's grip on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz had loosened.²³⁴

Eurasia Business News reported spot gold at $4,181.10 an ounce, up $67.10, or 1.63 percent, on the day, trading in a range of roughly $4,112.80 to $4,186.00; the outlet attributed the gain to gold's twin function as a safeguard against both inflation and market turmoil. Sandiegosun.com reported that the dollar gained ground against all major currencies on Wednesday: the euro slipped 0.30 percent to 1.1337, the pound fell 0.21 percent, and the Australian dollar lost 0.46 percent—the steepest fall among the major pairs.⁴⁵

Corporate developments

Fair Isaac shares plunged more than 26 percent after the Federal Housing Finance Agency director introduced mortgage pricing changes, with Bill Pulte saying, "We are Simplifying Mortgage Pricing following feedback from lenders and consumers." XPeng shares fell 4.2 percent to a 52-week low of $9.51 following a JPMorgan downgrade. Shein's adjusted net income for the second quarter of 2026 fell 66.6 percent from a year earlier, to $228 million. Morgan Stanley's Adam Wood gave Shopify an overweight rating and a $192 price target, saying the company "monetizes the transaction rather than the impression, leaving it agnostic to where demand originates." Most of Disney's recent layoffs fell within its human resources and technology departments.¹

Oura delayed plans for its public listing on Nasdaq, citing uncertainty in the IPO market. Anthropic's IPO prospectus warned that AI models pose catastrophic or existential risk to humanity. Financial stocks in the S&P 500 lost 6.3 percent for the month, putting the sector on track for its first monthly loss in four months, while silver dropped to $60.63 a troy ounce, its weakest level since August 5.¹