U.S. bonds, global stocks surge as economic slowdown worries improve

Benchmark U.S. Treasury yields rebounded off of 15-month lows on Tuesday while global stock markets broadly surged after a two-session swoon, as risk appetite improved after worries of an economic recession had clouded trading since late last week.

Oil prices also jumped, while safe-haven assets such as gold and the Japanese yen lost ground. Markets have been rattled since Friday, when the 3-month U.S. Treasury yield exceeded the yield on the 10-year note, an inversion of the yield curve that is widely seen as an indicator of a recession.

"After a couple of days where investors focused solely on the chances of recession in the U.S. and concerns about slower growth, today is not surprisingly a day where they rethink those probabilities," said Kate Warne, investment strategist at Edward Jones in St. Louis. "What we have is lots of signs of slower growth," Warne said. "We actually have very few signs of recession."

Wall Street's main indexes gained in afternoon trading but were down from session highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 108.6 points, or 0.43 per cent, to 25,625.43, the S&P 500 gained 14.7 points, or 0.53 per cent, to 2,813.06 and the Nasdaq Composite added 46.15 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 7,683.69.

Financial stocks rose 0.4 per cent after five sessions of declines. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.59 per cent, following a two-day losing streak.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.77 per cent after four sessions of losses. Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields rose off 15-month lows as markets steadied.

"This morning, starting in the overnight, you really had the first sign of stability in risk assets," said John Briggs, head of strategy for the Americas at NatWest Markets in Stamford, Connecticut. "I think you're just seeing a bit of a pullback in terms of the poor sentiment that dominated the past few days." Benchmark 10-year notes last fell 5/32 in price to yield 2.4336 per cent, from 2.418 per cent late on Monday. The yield fell as low as 2.377 per cent on Monday.

Germany's 10-year bond yield remained near 2-1/2-year lows at below zero per cent. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rose 0.11 per cent, with the euro down 0.22 per cent to $1.1286.

Oil rose as attention centered on geopolitical factors tightening supplies that are leading to falling exports from Venezuela and declining U.S. inventories. U.S. crude rose 1.89 per cent to $59.93 per barrel and Brent was last at $67.84, up 0.94 per cent.

Gold retreated from the more than 3-week highs touched in the previous session. Spot gold dropped 0.5 per cent to $1,315.56 an ounce.