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Dollar gains, with Treasury yields

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Global stock index up, Wall St indexes close higher

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Consumer confidence comes in light, capital goods rise

(Updates after U.S. stock market close)

By Sinéad Carew and Amanda Cooper

NEW YORK/LONDON, Dec 23 (Reuters) - A global equity

index rose on Monday with help from Wall Street, and U.S.

Treasury yields climbed to an almost seven-month high while data

showed a deterioration in U.S. consumer confidence and investors

prepared for fewer Federal Reserve rate cuts in 2025.

In U.S. equities, Nasdaq and the S&P 500 were

boosted mostly by rallies in megacap technology stocks such as

Nvidia Corp ( NVDA ) and Broadcom Inc. ( AVGO )

Earlier, the Conference Board said its U.S. consumer

confidence index weakened in December to 104.7 versus economist

expectations for an increase to 113.3 and November's upwardly

revised 112.8 on concerns about future business conditions.

While new orders for key U.S.-manufactured capital goods

rose in November amid strong demand for machinery, orders of

durable goods, ranging from toasters to aircraft, dropped 1.1%

after increasing 0.8% in October, with declines mostly

reflecting weakness in commercial aircraft orders.

Citing weak consumer confidence as a key negative for

equities on Monday, Robert Phipps, a director at Per Stirling

Capital Management, highlighted the 10-year Treasury yield's

jump to its highest level since late May.

"It's important for equity investors that the 4.6% level

holds for 10-year Treasury yields and if we break above it

there's a risk the market will go ahead and test 5%," he said,

pointing to a slowing in Fed rate cuts as the reason.

"The market is adjusting to a less dovish Fed policy," said

Phipps, noting U.S. indexes looked weaker under the hood besides

the rallies in heavyweight stocks.

"It is a deceptively strong market," he said.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose

66.69 points, or 0.16%, to 42,906.95, the S&P 500 rose

43.22 points, or 0.73%, to 5,974.07 and the Nasdaq Composite

rose 192.29 points, or 0.98%, to 19,764.89.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe

rose 5.51 points, or 0.65%, to 849.74 while earlier, Europe's

STOXX 600 index finished up 0.14%.

Ahead of Tuesday's shorter trading day and Wednesday's

market close for Christmas, Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio

strategist at Ingalls & Snyder said investors still had last

Wednesday's steep sell-off on their minds after the Fed clearly

signalled for fewer rate cuts next year.

"There's concern about the economy. There's concern about

the Fed making a wrong move and there's the great unknown of

what Trump is actually going to do," said Ghriskey, referring to

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration.

In U.S. Treasuries, 10-year yields hit their

highest level since late May as the Treasury Department this

week sells short- and intermediate-dated debt.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 6.7 basis

points to 4.591%, from 4.524% late on Friday, while the 30-year

bond yield rose 6.3 basis points to 4.7791%.

A $69 billion two-year notes sale was met with healthy

demand on Monday for the first auction of $183 billion in

coupon-bearing supply this week.

The 2-year note yield, which typically moves

in step with interest rate expectations for the Fed, rose 3

basis points to 4.342%, from 4.312% late on Friday.

In currencies, the dollar rebounded while the euro fell as

recent global central bank meetings set expectations for

diverging rate cut paths in the year ahead.

The dollar index, measuring the greenback against a

basket of major currencies, rose 0.27% to 108.08.

The euro was down 0.22% at $1.0406 and against

the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.45% to

157.12.

Elsewhere, Sterling weakened 0.31% to $1.253 and

Mexico's peso weakened 0.6% versus the dollar.

Oil prices settled down slightly in thin trade before the

holiday with concerns about a supply surplus next year and a

strengthened dollar.

U.S. crude settled down 0.32%, or 22 cents at $69.24

a barrel and Brent fell to $72.63 per barrel, down

0.43%, or 31 cents on the day.

Gold prices edged lower in subdued holiday-season trading,

weighed by a robust dollar and high U.S. Treasury yields.

Spot gold fell 0.39% to $2,610.66 an ounce. U.S. gold

futures fell 0.67% to $2,611.10 an ounce.