Stock Market Today: Soaring Treasury Yields Keep a Lid on Stocks
The main indexes kicked off the fourth quarter on a mixed note as upheaval in the bond market continued.


Stocks kicked off the new month and quarter on a relatively quiet note, even as Congress over the weekend passed a stopgap spending measure to avoid a shutdown and fund the government through mid-November.
While all three benchmarks spent some time in positive territory today, rising Treasury yields and a round of hawkish commentary from several Federal Reserve officials brought them off their session highs.
When the equities market closed last Friday, it seemed all but certain a government shutdown would occur over the weekend. However, late Saturday, Congress passed a 45-day spending bill that will provide funding through mid-November.

Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
"The news initially sent stocks higher in premarket trading before gains faded Monday morning," says Jeffrey Buchbinder, chief equity strategist at LPL Financial. "But before you get too comfortable, keep in mind in six weeks we may be right back in the same situation we were in last week."
Treasury yields keep climbing
Meanwhile, the bond market continued to struggle, with yields on the 2-year and 10-year Treasuries hitting their highest levels since 2006 and 2007, respectively. Specifically, the yield on the 2-year note rose 6.4 basis points to 5.11%, while the 10-year yield climbed 11.8 basis points to 4.689%. (A basis point = 0.01%.)
"From a fundamental perspective, rates have been driven higher by a U.S. economy that has continued to outperform expectations, pushing recession expectations out further, and by the unwinding of rate cut expectations by the Federal Reserve to be more in line with the Fed's 'higher for longer' regime," Buchbinder says.
Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said earlier today that "further rate increases will likely be needed to return inflation to 2% in a timely way." Additionally, Fed Governor Michael Barr this afternoon said interest rates will need to be held at "a sufficiently restrictive level" for "some time" in order for inflation to come down to the central bank's target.
Nvidia can rally another 35%, analyst says
As for the major indexes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.2% at 33,433), while the S&P 500 was fractionally higher at 4,288. The Nasdaq Composite, on the other hand, held on for a 0.7% gain at 13,307 thanks to upside in several mega-cap stocks.
Nvidia (NVDA), for one, jumped 3.0% – gaining $32 billion in market capitalization – after Goldman Sachs added the semiconductor stock to its conviction list given the company's competitive moat in the artificial intelligence (AI) space.
NVDA is "the principal 'shovel supplier' in the AI 'gold rush'," says Goldman Sachs analyst Toshiya Hari. However, the company is also seeing solid data center strength, with sales nearly tripling in the most recent quarter, and supply issues are abating, the analyst adds. Hari has a $605 price target on Nvidia, implying expected upside of roughly 35% to current levels.
Related content

With over a decade of experience writing about the stock market, Karee Venema is an investing editor and options expert at Kiplinger.com. She joined the publication in April 2021 after 10 years of working as an investing writer and columnist at Schaeffer's Investment Research. In her previous role, Karee focused primarily on options trading, as well as technical, fundamental and sentiment analysis.
-
Verizon's Latest Streaming Perk Bundles Netflix and Max for $10
Verizon's myPlan customers will be able to take advantage of the Netflix-Max streaming bundle soon.
By Joey Solitro Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Slip to Start Jobs Week
Coming off a fifth straight weekly win, the main indexes took a breather ahead of a busy week of jobs data.
By Karee Venema Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Slip to Start Jobs Week
Coming off a fifth straight weekly win, the main indexes took a breather ahead of a busy week of jobs data.
By Karee Venema Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Swing Higher After Powell Speech
Fed Chair Powell poured cold water on potential rate cuts, but stocks jumped anyway.
By Karee Venema Published
-
Stock Market Today: Dow Jumps 520 Points After Salesforce Earnings
The enterprise network software firm reported impressive Q3 results, sending the blue chip stock soaring.
By Karee Venema Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Give Back GDP Gains After Beige Book
The latest GDP report showed the U.S. economy grew at a rapid-fire rate in the third quarter, but the Fed's Beige Book sparked concerns.
By Karee Venema Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Struggle for Direction After Mixed Fed Messages
E-commerce platform PDD Holdings jumped after earnings, while rival Shein reportedly filed confidential IPO paperwork.
By Karee Venema Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Close Lower on Cyber Monday
The main indexes were choppy to start the week, though several e-commerce stocks jumped on encouraging online holiday shopping numbers.
By Karee Venema Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Keep Their Weekly Win Streak Alive
The main indexes closed mixed Friday, though all three nabbed a fourth straight weekly gain.
By Karee Venema Published
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Resume Their Winning Ways
The major benchmarks rebounded from a rare down session to post broad-based gains Wednesday.
By Dan Burrows Published