US stocks steady, Treasury yields touch 19-month low

Bloomberg

US equity futures steadied with European stocks as traders returned from American and UK holidays with a cautious outlook. The dollar advanced with Treasuries.
Contracts on the S&P 500 fluctuated alongside those on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq 100. The Stoxx Europe 600 index was steady, erasing earlier losses after better-than-forecast economic confidence data and as the European Union said it didn’t favour fining Italy over its finances. Stocks climbed in Japan and China. Ten-year Treasury yields fell to their lowest levels since October 2017 as the securities returned to trading, and after President Donald Trump declared that the US was “not ready” to reach a trade deal with China.
The offshore yuan weakened as the Chinese government seized a bank for the first time in more than two decades.
Stalled talks in the US-China trade war and escalating tensions have soured sentiment for risk assets. That’s driven sovereign bonds higher and pushed global stocks towards their first monthly decline of 2019. Trump said during a state visit to Japan that American tariffs on goods from China “could go up very, very substantially, very easily,” while over the weekend the Asian nation pushed back at the perception that the levies were hurting its economy.
“The Sino-US tensions continue to weigh on equity markets,” said Benjamin Jones, a senior multi-asset strategist at State Street Global Markets in London. “Thus far, there seems to be little sign of an easing in those pressures on either side of the fence.”
Elsewhere, the pound edged lower as traders kept watch on the race to choose Britain’s next prime minister. West Texas crude oil nudged above $59 a barrel.
Executives from Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Twitter were scheduled to speak before Canadian Parliament’s International Grand Committee on big data, fake news and privacy on Tuesday. China provides a first peek at its May economic performance on Friday, with economists anticipating the official manufacturing PMI will tick down to 49.9 — a contraction — amid the worsening trade war with the US.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained less than 0.05 percent in New York. Futures on the S&P 500 Index dipped less than 0.05 percent. The UK’s FTSE 100 Index jumped 0.3 percent.
The MSCI Emerging Market Index fell 0.1 percent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 0.3 percent.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1 percent, the biggest advance in a week. The euro was unchanged at $1.1194. The British pound declined less than 0.05 percent to $1.2674. The Japanese yen rose 0.1 percent to 109.42 per dollar.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries decreased two basis points to 2.30 percent, the lowest in more than 19 months.
Britain’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 0.956 percent, the lowest in more than 23 months. Germany’s 10-year yield was unchanged at -0.12 percent, the lowest in more than two years.
Gold declined 0.2 percent to $1,282.48 an ounce. West Texas Intermediate crude gained 0.8 percent to $59.10 a barrel.