In Asian Equity Markets stocks broke a five-day slide, pushing higher on Thursday as China underscored its diverging monetary and economic picture by cutting benchmark mortgage rates. China’s blue-chip CSI300 index rose more than 1 percent on Thursday and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up nearly 3 percent in afternoon trading. The rise in Chinese shares lifted MSCI’s broadest index of Asian shares outside Japan 1 percent higher. Seoul’s Kospi rose 0.68 percent and Australian stocks gained 0.14 percent. In Tokyo, the Nikkei added 1.11 percent.

In Currency Markets the dollar edged lower on Thursday as this week’s rally in U.S. Treasury yields paused, and currencies such as the Canadian and Australian dollars were boosted by high commodity prices and continued optimism about future global economic growth. The European common currency was last at $1.1351, the pound was at $1.3636, and the yen was a little softer at 114.46 per dollar. Overall, this left the dollar index at 95.555. The Aussie firmed 0.3 percent and the Canadian dollar was heading back towards its 10-week high touched on Wednesday with one U.S. dollar worth C$1.245.

In US Equity Markets main indexes ended sharply lower on Wednesday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq confirming it was in a correction, after a diverse set of corporate earnings and as investors continued to worry about higher U.S. Treasury yields and the Federal Reserve tightening monetary policy. The Dow fell 0.96 percent, to 35,028.65, the S&P 500 lost 0.97 percent, to 4,532.76 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.15 percent, to 14,340.26. Consumer discretionary fell most among S&P 500 sectors, falling 1.8 percent, while financials fell about 1.7 percent and technology slid 1.4 percent.

In Commodities Markets oil steadied on Thursday, clawing back losses earlier in the session, as strong demand and short-term supply disruptions continue to support prices close to their highest levels since late 2014. Brent crude futures fell 0.2 percent, to $88.27 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 0.1 percent, to stand at $87.03 a barrel, having also shed nearly $1 earlier. Spot gold was unchanged at $1,839.25 per ounce. Spot silver increased 0.1 percent to $24.15 an ounce, platinum gained 0.1 percent to $1,022.50, and palladium was flat at $2,001.91.

In European Equity Markets stocks fell again on Wednesday as U.S. Treasury yields hit new highs, while luxury stocks stood out on upbeat trading updates from Richemont and Burberry. The pan-European STOXX 600 index skidded 0.1 percent. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index fell 0.2 percent with consumer-focussed stocks Diageo and Unilever the top drags on the index. British luxury brand Burberry advanced 3.8 percent after saying a strong performance in outerwear and leather goods and a material improvement in Asia and Europe accelerated growth in its quarterly full-price sales.

In Bond Markets U.S. Treasury yields eased on Wednesday from two-year highs, as investors took advantage of higher yields resulting from the recent sell-off to buy the debt and as the Treasury saw strong demand for a sale of 20-year bonds. Benchmark 10-year note yields earlier rose as high as 1.902 percent and five-year yields reached 1.693 percent, both the highest since Jan. 2020. Two-year note yields, which are highly sensitive to rate increases, jumped to 1.076 percent, the highest since Feb. 2020. Yields on 10-year TIPS gained to minus 0.59 percent.