Wall Street capped a day of choppy trading Wednesday with more record highs for stocks and another drop in bond yields that sends mixed signals about investors’ confidence in the market.
Technology, industrial and healthcare companies accounted for a big share of the gains. Apple rose 1.8%, Otis added 2% and Biogen gained 3%. Those gains were kept in check by a slide in other sectors, including energy, which fell as oil prices dropped 1.6%. Stock indexes and Treasury yields had little reaction to the minutes from the June meeting of Federal Reserve policymakers, which showed Fed officials discussed the timing of reducing bond purchases that they have used to keep longer-term interest rates in check.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury sank as low as 1.28% on Wednesday, down from its perch above 1.75% in March. A month ago, it was trading around 1.62%. The last time bond yields moved lower so quickly was in March 2020 when the pandemic effectively shut down the U.S. economy.