Finance

A historic selloff in the global bond market stabilized on Friday afternoon, dragging the 10-year Treasury yield down slightly to 5.18% after it briefly flirted with its highest mark since 2007. The sudden deceleration followed emerging reports that United States and Iranian officials are negotiating a temporary phased deal to restore transit security through the Strait of Hormuz. Despite the late-week retreat, sovereign bond yields closed out the week substantially higher than where they began.

The Federal Open Market Committee recently raised the federal funds rate by a quarter percentage point to a range of 3.75% to 4%, signaling its commitment to bringing inflation down to its 2% target. Economic indicators like the finalized University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey tracked slightly higher than anticipated, underscoring ongoing inflation pressures within a tight domestic economy. Analysts project that borrowing costs may remain elevated for a prolonged duration, with markets now bracing for additional potential rate hikes moving into next year.

The digital asset market faced localized turbulence on Friday as a massive $18 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum options reached their expiration date, clearing a substantial portion of open contracts. Bitcoin hovered around the $84,000 threshold, while approximately $400 million in leveraged positions were liquidated across centralized trading platforms due to a brief pullback from weekly highs. Concurrently, broader institutional sentiment shifted toward tokenized money, highlighted by Ondo Finance introducing new investment products modeled on BlackRock strategies.