(Updates to U.S. market close)
* US, European stocks regain limited ground
* Brent dips below $100 after Thursday's spike
* Markets see one-in-three chance of Fed rate hike next week
* Yen languishing at 40-year lows; dollar steady
By Lawrence Delevingne, Shashwat Chauhan and Stella Qiu
July 24 (Reuters) - U.S. and European stock markets found
only scattered relief from this week's lows as oil prices pulled
back on Friday, but global bond yields stayed near multi-decade
highs as concerns over inflation and rate hikes continued.
News that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration will
impose higher tariffs on goods from 60 trading partners did not
help the inflation picture, with 30-year Treasury yields
near their highest since 2007 and German 10-year
Bund yields - the benchmark for the euro zone -
holding close to their highest since 2011.
Wall Street stocks were mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial
Average up 0.46%, the S&P 500 little changed and
the Nasdaq Composite down 0.64%.
Shares of chipmaker Intel ( INTC ) fell about 8% despite strong
results. Tech stocks have been under pressure this week as
investors grow increasingly uneasy about multi-billion-dollar
spending on AI that has yet to yield conclusive evidence of
paying off.
The pan-European STOXX 600 gained 0.8% after a more
than 1% drop in the last session, rising for a second straight
week.
Brent crude settled at $96.78 a barrel, down $3.91, or
3.88%, having closed above $100 in the previous session for the
first time since May.
Attacks by Iran-aligned Houthis on Saudi tankers in the Red Sea
risk choking off a second crucial Middle East artery for global
oil supplies, alongside Iran's near-closure of the Strait of
Hormuz. Trump threatened "major military punishment" for Iran
and its Houthi allies, while the U.S. military conducted a 13th
consecutive night of attacks.
BOND YIELDS NEAR HIGHS
Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields dipped from 18-month
highs on Friday as oil prices eased, though investors remained
cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting next
week, which many believe could bring a hawkish surprise.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield ticked
down to 4.679%, while the yield on 30-year Treasury bonds was
steady at 5.163%, not far from a 19-year peak of 5.201%.
Markets show traders believe central banks are more likely
to raise borrowing costs, with a one-in-three chance of a rate
hike from the Fed as soon as next week - a sea change from
merely a week ago - while a move in September is more than fully
priced in.
"As for the Fed, uncertainty around the outlook for both the
policy rate and the balance sheet could weigh on the UST market
over the next few months," John Davies, U.S. rates strategist at
Standard Chartered Bank, wrote in a note on Friday, referring to
the Treasuries market.
"Our base case remains an on-hold Fed, but we see a risk
that the long-end might start to question whether Chair Warsh is
only ready to 'talk the talk' rather than 'walk the walk' on
delivering price stability," Davies said.
The European Central Bank left rates unchanged on Thursday, but
a September rate hike is about 70% priced in. Data on Friday
offered a more optimistic economic outlook after surveys of
business activity showed Germany's private sector returned to
growth in July for the first time in four months and contraction
in France's private sector eased this month.
Most major currencies were steady against the dollar on
Friday, though the dollar index was on pace for its
biggest weekly jump in about a month.
The yen was pinned near 40-year lows at 163.84 per
dollar, drawing warnings from the U.S. Treasury about excess
volatility in the currency and from Japan's finance minister.