Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Stock futures were little changed on Tuesday afternoon as the major averages added to weeks of losses amid a jump in bond yields.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones industrial average were lower by points. S&P 500 futures moved slightly lower by 0.01% and Nasdaq 100 futures traded just above the flat line.
Shares added to their three-week slide in regular trading. The Dow fell about 173 points, or 0.5%, and the S&P 500 fell 0.4%. The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.7 percent to snap its first seven-day losing streak since 2016.
The moves came amid a surge in bond yields that pushed the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note to its highest level since June. The 30-year Treasury yield closed at its highest level since 2014. Bond yields move inversely to prices.
Investors are torn about how to approach the market entering the first week after Labor Day in September, a notoriously tough month for stocks. All eyes are on the S&P 500’s 3,900 level. Some see the index falling to even lower lows, while others are optimistic about a year-end rally.
“It’s the battlefield,” NewEdge Wealth chief investment officer Cameron Dawson said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.” “It’s been resistance and support, and whenever you have those places where you have a lot of consolidation of resistance and support, we’re going to see a lot of battles to see where we push either above or below that.”
“If we hold 3,900, that’s a bullish signal,” he added. “That means the market is discovering some change in liquidity, willing to put a higher multiple on things on a sustainable basis… If we don’t, then that 3,600 is in short order.”
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will release its summary of current economic conditions, also known as the Beige Book. Elsewhere, Fed Chairs Loretta Mester of Cleveland and Tom Barkin of Richmond, as well as Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard are scheduled to speak at various events.
