More swings for bond yields rattle financial markets worldwide

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NEW YORK (AP) — More swings in the bond market are rattling stock markets around the world on Thursday and offsetting optimism that the artificial-intelligence industry can keep climbing.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.1% and may be heading toward its seventh drop in the last eight days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 64 points, or 0.1% as of 12:49 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% lower.

The losses were sharper in Europe, where bond yields saw a significant jump overnight. London's FTSE 100 sank 1.7% after the yield on the 10-year U.K. government bond leaped as high as 5.53% before falling to 5.37% and then charging upward again. The CAC 40 in Paris dropped 1.6% following similar swings for the 10-year French government bond's yield.

High yields slow the economy by making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money, while undercutting prices for stocks and other investments.

Yields are on the rise for a range of reasons, including worries about high inflation and oil prices, signals that the U.S. economy remains solid and governments' insistence to continue to spend much more money than they bring in.

Those worries don't look to be going away anytime soon, and oil prices climbed again Thursday to keep the pressure up on inflation. The price for a barrel of Brent crude added 3.2% to $101.13 for its latest yo-yo move on uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow the global oil industry to return to normal.

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