* Yields mixed as market eyes new trading range
* Oil pauses after hitting a one-year high; copper rises
* Wall St slips on surprise rise in jobless claims, tech
sell-off
(Updates to the close of U.S. trading)
By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed
NEW YORK, Feb 18 (Reuters) - A gauge of global equity
markets fell for a third straight session on Thursday, dragged
lower by weakness on Wall Street on views the market has climbed
too high to soon, while a rise in weekly jobless claims pointed
to a fragile recovery in the U.S. labor market.
Investors took profits on technology shares and other
segments that have risen sharply.
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 fell 0.52% to
679.13. 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.
Strong earnings, progress in the vaccination rollout and
hopes of a $1.9 trillion federal stimulus package helped U.S.
stock indexes hit record highs again at the start of the week.
But the months-long rally suggests stocks now have high
valuations, said Jason Pride, chief investment officer for
private wealth at Glenmede in Philadelphia.
"We are still in the cautiously bullish environment for the
market on the whole," Pride said, citing two reasons.
"We're going to get a vaccine-induced economic recovery,
that's No. 1. The flip side of that story is the markets have
largely priced that in and driven themselves to over-valued
territory. Markets are going to struggle with that," he said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 119.68 points,
or 0.38%, to finish at 31,493.34, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 17.36
points, or 0.44%, to end at 3,913.97 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC dropped 100.14 points, or 0.72%, to close at 13,865.36.
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 0.02% at $1,775.8667 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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