Bonds and stocks fell around the world, with shares in emerging markets sinking the most in 20 months, after the Federal Reserve said it may phase out stimulus and China’s cash crunch worsened. Gold led commodities lower.
The 10-year Treasury note yield climbed six basis points to 2.42 percent, the highest since October 2011, at 7:25 a.m. in New York after jumping 17 basis points yesterday, as borrowing costs surged from New Zealand to Germany. The MSCI All-Country World Index (MXWO) lost 1.3 percent and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures dropped 0.8 percent. Emerging-market assets fell, with India’s rupee and Turkey’s lira weakening to records. The S&P GSCI gauge of raw materials slid 1.6 percent as gold sank below $1,300 an ounce for the first time since September 2010.
Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the Fed may start reducing bond purchases that have fueled gains in markets globally, and end the program in 2014 should risks to the U.S. economy abate. A report today may show the U.S. housing market is improving, at the same time data from China, the biggest developing-nation economy, indicated manufacturing shrank at a faster pace and the benchmark money-market rate climbed to a record.
