Stocks Fade as Oil and Yields Push Higher

The big picture. U.S. stocks end mixed to lower, with the S&P 500 down 0.2%, the Nasdaq Composite down 0.3%, and the Dow down 0.2%. Small caps buck the trend, with the Russell 2000 up 0.5%. Sector action is split: Energy leads at 1.4%, followed by Utilities at 0.6%, while Health falls 0.6% and Tech drops 0.4%. The S&P 500 spends most of the day in a tight range after an early push near 7808, then drifts lower into the close, finishing at 7785.7598.

Treasury yields move higher across the curve. The 5-year rises 1.1% to 4.362%, the 10-year climbs 1.2% to 4.696%, and the 30-year adds 1.0% to 5.265%. Credit is softer, with LQD down 0.4%, MUB down 0.3%, and HYG down 0.1%. VIX drops 2.6% to 14.25, and the 9-day VIX falls 37.0% to 10.61, pointing to calmer short-term pricing.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei rises 1.2% and South Korea’s Kospi jumps 3.6%. Europe is mostly lower, with the FTSE 100 down 0.6%, the CAC 40 down 0.3%, and the DAX down 0.1%, while the Stoxx 600 is nearly flat. In FX, the dollar index slips 0.3% to 99.636, EUR/USD rises 0.4% to 1.1573, and AUD/USD gains 0.3% to 0.7087.

Crypto is softer. Bitcoin falls 0.7% to 62938.1484, Ethereum dips 0.2% to 1880.39, and Solana loses 1.1%. The total crypto market cap slips 0.6% to $2.3T, with Bitcoin dominance at 56.1% and Ethereum dominance at 10.1%.