Finance

Major U.S. stock indexes showed mixed performance in early Wednesday trading following three consecutive sessions of declines that inaugurated a historically weak month. Gains in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were partially offset by a sluggish tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite as investors weighed macroeconomic headwinds against persistent optimism in artificial intelligence equities.

A broad sell-off across sovereign bond markets has propelled government yields to multi-month and multi-decade highs. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield crossed 4.8%, reaching its highest point in nearly two years due to mounting pressure from defense spending obligations, high inflation expectations, and shifting interest rate projections.

Digital assets experienced notable downward pressure with Bitcoin slipping toward $76,500 and Ethereum declining to around $2,370. The drop is largely attributed to escalating geopolitical friction, which has fueled anticipation of a Federal Reserve rate hike and drawn capital away from assets that do not yield interest.