This content was published on
August 21, 2026 - 16:17
4 minutes
(Bloomberg) — Wall Street is ending a jittery week with stocks rising as bonds stabilized, with the revival of risk appetite extending a surge in cryptocurrencies.Friday’s advance trimmed a weekly slide in the S&P 500. The Nasdaq 100 fluctuated after a five-day decline. Bitcoin hovered near $77,000, heading toward its best weekly gain in more than three years. Following a burst of volatility, Treasuries barely budged. Oil prices eased as Iran’s president urged an end to the war with the US.Investors are assessing the fallout from a week that saw bond yields spike on worries about inflation and spendthrift governments, a surge that prompted the US to intervene to curb longer-term borrowing costs. They are now awaiting a promised new initiative from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent aimed at fiscal consolidation.“We suspect long-dated Treasury yields will stabilize over the next few weeks as some calm is restored following the recent bout of volatility in global sovereign bond markets,” said Joe Maher at Capital Economics.Still, he expects term premia to keep edging higher and put upward pressure on long-dated Treasury yields over the medium term.“We don’t currently see bond market turbulence as a reason to reduce equity market exposure,” said Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi at UBS Chief Investment Office. “It does, however, reinforce the case for diversified equity exposure across sectors and regions, with a balance of cyclical, tech, and defensive stocks.”For all the US Treasury’s efforts to stem rising borrowing costs, cooling inflation remains the most compelling way to lower bond yields, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.The effects of the Treasury’s plans to boost debt buybacks are likely to prove “relatively short-lived” without a shift that addresses the underlying US macro drivers, strategist Friedrich Schaper wrote.On the economic front, US business activity grew at its fastest pace in more than four years as stronger demand and a rosier outlook fueled a wave of hiring.The S&P Global flash US composite purchasing managers index climbed to 56 in August, according to data released Friday, the highest reading since April 2022. Figures above 50 indicate expansion.Corporate Highlights:Anthropic PBC is set to add Citigroup Inc. to the banks working on its initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter, as Wall Street jostles for roles on the artificial intelligence firm’s debut. Broadcom Inc. is in talks with a group of lenders to raise more than $60 billion in debt for an AI chip financing deal that will benefit Anthropic PBC and other companies, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Samsung Electronics Co. plans to return as much as 110 trillion won ($80 billion) to investors this year, joining SK Hynix Inc. in sharing an AI windfall and putting in motion the largest shareholder return program in South Korea’s history. DeepSeek unveiled an experimental AI model that can understand visual prompts, saying the tool nears the performance of an advanced model by Anthropic PBC. Ross Stores Inc. raised its annual profit outlook for a second time this year, signaling that the discount retailer’s momentum is holding up. Some of the main moves in markets:StocksThe S&P 500 rose 0.3% as of 10:15 a.m. New York time The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.2% The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7% The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.5% The MSCI World Index rose 0.4% CurrenciesThe Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2% The euro was little changed at $1.1679 The British pound was little changed at $1.3641 The Japanese yen rose 0.1% to 158.84 per dollar CryptocurrenciesBitcoin rose 5.7% to $76,807.17 Ether rose 2.7% to $2,379.85 BondsThe yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced one basis point to 4.72% Germany’s 10-year yield declined one basis point to 3.25% Britain’s 10-year yield declined two basis points to 5.05% CommoditiesWest Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.3% to $86.61 a barrel Spot gold rose 1.6% to $4,589.51 an ounce ©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
