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Stocks sold off on Wednesday, pressured by a sharp spike higher in Treasury yields as traders grew worried that a new U.S. budget bill would put even more stress on the country’s already large deficit.

 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 816.80 points, or 1.91% to 41,860.44. The S&P 500 shed 1.61% to 5,844.61. The Nasdaq Composite slid 1.41% to 18,872.64.

 

The 30-year Treasury bond yield last traded around 5.08%, the highest level going back to October 2023. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield traded at 4.59%.

Toronto-Dominion Bank is folding its US municipal fixed income business into its electronic trading unit, as the Canadian firm looks to streamline its operations amid a boom in automated trading.

 

Rick Fogliano, managing director of US municipal fixed income sales & trading, will report to Marty Mannion and Matt Schrager, co-heads of TD Securities Automated Trading, according to an April memo seen by Bloomberg.

Kalshi Inc. withdrew announcements about a collaboration with Elon Musk’s artificial-intelligence firm xAI just hours after a top executive at the prediction markets firm touted the deal.

 

Kalshi had announced on Tuesday morning that xAI would provide tailored information to offer guidance for bets made by the site’s users. By later that day, Kalshi had rescinded its statement, with a spokesperson for the firm explaining that “details of the announcement had not been mutually confirmed.”

 

The Kalshi spokesperson and a spokesperson for xAI didn’t provide a comment on the deal’s current status. On Wednesday, X posted on its social media platform that no formal partnerships in the prediction market space had been confirmed, though it is engaged in various discussions.

 

Bloomberg previously reported on the product integration news and retracted its story following Kalshi’s statement withdrawal.

Stocks sold off on Wednesday, pressured by a sharp spike higher in Treasury yields as traders grew worried that a new U.S. budget bill could put even more stress on the country’s already large deficit.

 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 732 points, or 1.7%. The S&P 500 shed 1.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite slid 1.1%.

 

The 30-year Treasury bond yield last traded around 5.08%, the highest level going back to October 2023. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield traded at 4.59%.

Bernard Arnault urged the European Union to hold constructive talks with the US as the French billionaire questioned the course of current negotiations.

 

“Today it seems like it’s not going well,” Arnault said Wednesday during a Senate hearing in Paris about state help for companies. “The negotiation must be held in a constructive way in order to reach reciprocal concessions,” between the EU and the US.

 

The chief executive officer of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE focused on the risk faced by Cognac makers in France from possible tariffs from the US and China, which represent 80% of that market. LVMH owns Cognac maker Hennessy.

Walt Disney Co. notified Florida-based employees who are losing temporary legal residency in the US that their jobs would be terminated next month after the Supreme Court revoked protections for 350,000 Venezuelans on Monday.

 

The company sent an email to employees under Temporary Protected Status on Tuesday stating they had been placed on a 30-day unpaid leave effective on May 20. Those who are unable to provide new valid work authorization at the end of the leave will be fired, according to the internal communication viewed by Bloomberg.

 

A Venezuelan employee under TPS status who worked for a Disney resort was turned away from the premises when he reported to work on Tuesday, the worker said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.

Microsoft Corp. said its data-focused product, Fabric, is rapidly picking up customers in competition with rivals including Snowflake Inc. and Databricks Inc.

 

“We have seen very broad adoption of Fabric — 21,000 organizations around the planet in 18 months since general availability,” Arun Ulag, who leads data products at Microsoft, said in an interview.

 

Software vendors Snowflake and Databricks, each founded in the 2010s, distinguished themselves by offering specialized products for taking in and analyzing huge sums of data. But they face increasing competition from cloud infrastructure providers such as Microsoft that are expanding their offerings.

Increasingly skittish investors worried about rising Treasury yields and stretched consumers weighing on the economy sold stocks Wednesday afternoon after a $16 billion Treasury auction saw disappointing demand.

 

The S&P 500 Index was down 1.2% at 1:58 p.m. in New York, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq Index declined 0.9%. Stocks had been holding up on the strenthg of big tech, but then US Treasury yields eclipsed key psychological levels after the troubling 20-year Tressury auction, with the 30-year soaring above 5%. The Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX, also briefly crossed 20 before retreating.

 

“The 30-year T-Bond yield is within 10 basis points of hitting its highest level since 2007,” said Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading. “If the world’s safest assets are acting this poorly, then equities are due for a correction.”

Wall Street’s worries about a ballooning deficit that threatens America’s status as a safe haven were reflected in a $16 billion Treasury sale that saw lackluster demand, with stocks, bonds and the dollar falling.

 

Treasuries hit session lows after the weak auction of 20-year bonds, whose 5% coupon rate was the highest since the tenor was reintroduced in 2020. Long-term debt bore the brunt of the selling, with 30-year yields jumping 10 basis points toward the highest since October 2023.

 

After almost wiping out losses, the S&P 500 pushed lower again to drop about 1%. The greenback slipped against most major currencies.

The European Union has shared a revised trade proposal with the US, as it aims to inject momentum in talks with President Donald Trump’s administration amid lingering skepticism that a transatlantic deal can be reached.

 

The new paper includes proposals that take into account US interests, including international labor rights, environmental standards, economic security and gradually reducing tariffs to zero on both sides for non-sensitive agricultural products as well as industrial goods, according to people familiar with the matter.

Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy said the online retailer hasn’t seen any meaningful reduction in consumer spending or an increase in prices as a result of tariffs introduced by US President Donald Trump earlier this year.

 

“We’ve not seen any attenuation of demand at this point,” Jassy said Wednesday during Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting when asked about tariffs. He also said the company hasn’t seen any significant increase in average prices.

 

Investors are carefully monitoring reports from US retailers for signs of how shoppers and brands are responding to tariffs, which were as high at 145% on imports from China before Trump announced a 90-day pause to give time for negotiations.

Bitcoin hit an all-time high after the advancement of stablecoin legislation in the US stoked hopes of regulatory clarity under President Donald Trump.

 

The largest cryptocurrency climbed as much as 2.6% to a record $109,730, breaching a previous high set at roughly the time of Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. Smaller tokens such as Ether and XRP also advanced.

 

Bitcoin and the broader crypto market have rallied in recent weeks thanks to regulatory tailwinds, including the stablecoin bill advancing in the US Senate after a group of Democrats dropped their opposition Monday.

 

The industry-backed regulatory bill is now set for debate on the Senate floor with a bipartisan group hoping to pass it as soon as this week.

US President Donald Trump’s said his massive tax package is close to being finalized, having notched a deal over the state and local tax deduction, but the White House has yet to win over a faction of conservatives who want more austere spending cuts.

 

“We’re doing very well. It’s very close,” Trump told reporters Wednesday.

 

House Speaker Mike Johnson announced Wednesday that he had an agreement with lawmakers from high-tax states to increase the limit on the SALT deduction to $40,000. Shortly afterwards, ultraconservatives lashed out.

 

Several hardline Republicans said House GOP leaders aren’t honouring concessions the White House promised them and are threatening to tank the bill.

Microsoft said on Wednesday that it broke down the Lumma Stealer malware project with the help of law enforcement officials across the globe.

 

The tech giant said in a blog post that its digital crimes unit discovered over 394,000 Windows computers were infected by the Lumma malware worldwide between March 16 through May 16.

 

The Lumma malware was a favourite hacking tool used by bad actors, Microsoft said in the post. Hackers used the malware to steal passwords, credit cards, bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets.

Alphabet Inc. shares gained after the company said it will offer “AI mode” in search to all US users, showing its commitment to redesigning its core business to keep pace with new rivals in the artificial intelligence age.

 

“We want to get our best models into your hands,” Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai said Tuesday at the company’s developer conference in Mountain View, California. “So we are shipping faster than ever.”

 

Alphabet’s stock rose much as 5.6% on Wednesday after some analysts expressed confidence that the company can reorient its search product.

Chatbot Arena started as an academic project, where researchers and students at the University of California at Berkeley worked to evaluate the capacity of artificial intelligence tools. Now, the group has spun out into a new company, called LMArena, that’s raised $100 million in seed funding from a slate of A-list investors.

 

Andreessen Horowitz and UC Investments — which manages an investment portfolio for the University of California — led the fundraising, which the company plans to announce Wednesday. The deal includes backing from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Felicis Ventures and Kleiner Perkins, among others, the company said.

Wall Street kept a close eye on the budget wrangling in Washington, with stocks, bonds and the dollar falling on concern over whether the US will be able to rein in its ballooning deficit that threatens America’s status as the world’s safe haven.

 

Following a surge from its April lows, the S&P 500 dropped for a second straight day. More than 85% of its companies retreated, though big tech outperformed – with Alphabet Inc. up almost 5%. Equities also trimmed losses as Bloomberg News reported the European Union was expected to share a revised trade proposal with the US.

The Ontario government will spend nearly C$3.1 billion ($2.2 billion) to encourage Indigenous participation in the mining industry, in a bid to ramp up critical minerals production across Canada’s most populous province.

 

Premier Doug Ford’s government said Wednesday that most of the money will go to loan guarantees that enable Indigenous business groups to invest in Ontario mining projects. Funds will also go toward grants and scholarships for Indigenous students interested in careers in mining and resource development.

 

The spending is part of a countrywide push to accelerate mining projects and cut down on regulatory hurdles at a time when global demand for raw materials like nickel, copper and cobalt is growing. Canada has an abundance of critical minerals and Ontario is home to some of the country’s largest mines, but the nation has struggled to permit projects quickly in part due to red tape, long consultation periods with local Indigenous groups and litigation regarding environmental concerns.

The Trump administration has asked the US Supreme Court to halt a judge’s order that would force it to answer questions from a watchdog group and turn over documents about Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency in a fight over public access to the office’s records.

 

The Justice Department is challenging a ruling that requires the US DOGE Service to comply with demands by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, for information about its structure and operations. That includes making DOGE administrator Amy Gleason available to testify under oath at a deposition. A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit on May 14 denied the government’s request to intervene.

Conservative hardliners threatened to block Republicans’ massive tax and spending package, jeopardizing passage of President Donald Trump’s signature economic legislation.

 

Ultraconservatives lashed out shortly after House Speaker Mike Johnson announced he had an agreement with lawmakers from high-tax states to increase the limit on the deduction for state local taxes to $40,000.

 

Several hardline Republicans said House GOP leaders aren’t honoring concessions the White House promised them.

 

Ultraconservative Representative Andy Harris of Maryland said Wednesday morning the Trump administration promised them in a “midnight deal” deeper cuts in Medicaid and faster elimination of Biden-era clean energy tax breaks.

The Trump administration is filing criminal charges against more immigrants in the US illegally as part of an effort to skirt state and city policies that limit local cooperation.

 

The effort is starting in California, where prosecutors are tracking everyone booked into state and local jails in a seven-county region. They’re looking for foreigners who have been previously deported in order to charge them with a felony for re-entering the US without permission, said Bill Essayli, the US Attorney for the Central District of California, which includes Los Angeles.

 

Under “Operation Guardian Angel” federal prosecutors have filed about 350 criminal arrest warrants for foreigners arrested on state or local charges in the area since January, compared with about 17 during all of 2023 and 2024, Essayli said in a interview.

Shares of Canada Goose rose roughly 20% on Wednesday after the company reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ estimates, though the company pulled its fiscal year 2026 outlook due to “macroeconomic uncertainty.”

 

The luxury retailer said it will not be providing a financial outlook for the fiscal year 2026 due to the uncertainty, citing “dynamic consumer spending patterns brought on by the unpredictable global trade environment.”

 

Nonetheless, Canada Goose said it “remains confident in the strength of the brand, the Company’s solid financial position, and its ability to adapt to changing conditions.”

Malaysia declared it’ll build a first-of-its-kind AI system powered by Huawei Technologies Co. chips, only to distance itself from that statement a day later, underscoring the Asian nation’s delicate position in the US-Chinese AI race.

 

Deputy Minister of Communications Teo Nie Ching said in a speech Monday her country would be the first to activate an unspecified class of Huawei “Ascend GPU-powered AI servers at national scale.”

 

Malaysia would deploy 3,000 units of Huawei’s primary AI offering by 2026, she said in prepared remarks reviewed by Bloomberg News. Chinese startup DeepSeek would also make one of its AI models available to the Southeast Asian country, the official added.

Stocks fell Wednesday as traders fretted over another move higher in Treasury yields and monitored the progress on a new U.S. budget bill that could put pressure on the country’s deficit.

 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 362 points, or 0.9%. The S&P 500 shed 0.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite pulled back 0.7%.

 

The 30-year Treasury bond yield moved back above 5% on Wednesday, while the benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield traded over 4.53%. Yields moved above those key levels earlier in the week after Moody’s downgraded U.S. bonds late Friday.

Oil rallied on a CNN report that Israel is preparing to potentially strike Iranian nuclear facilities.

 

West Texas Intermediate jumped as much as 3.5% earlier, briefly surpassing $64 a barrel, before paring gains. It wasn’t clear whether a final decision on any attack had been made, CNN said, citing US intelligence and unidentified American officials.

 

Oil has been volatile since last week on mixed headlines about the fate of Iran-US nuclear talks, which could pave the way for more barrels to return to a market that’s expected to be oversupplied later in the year. An attack by Israel would hinder any progress in those negotiations and add to unrest in the Middle East, which supplies about a third of the world’s crude.

US stocks are set to extend a retreat, with traders nervous about rising bond yields as House lawmakers debated tax cuts at the center of the Trump administration’s policy agenda. The dollar also fell.

 

S&P 500 futures slid 0.5% alongside a retreat in European shares. Oil climbed about 1.5% on a report that Israel could be gearing up for a possible strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Yields on 30-year Treasuries rose further above the 5% mark. The greenback lost ground against all major currencies.

A dinner on Thursday in Washington — billed as the “Most Exclusive Once in Lifetime Invitation” — is the latest and boldest spectacle Bill Zanker has launched for Donald Trump.

 

Since Zanker co-authored a 2007 book with Trump, they’ve had a number of splashy collaborations, including a crowdfunding site and a series of non-fungible tokens featuring superhero versions of Trump, with events for some of the largest holders at Trump’s private club, Mar-a-Lago.

 

These days, though, Zanker is uniquely positioned to sell the Trump name — and access to the president himself.

The UK, along with the European Union and Portugal, delayed debt sales due to temporary disruptions caused by issues with Bloomberg LP software.

 

The UK added an extra 90 minutes to its window for receiving auction bids, while the EU postponed the deadline for a bills sale by one hour. Both sales eventually concluded with solid investor demand.

 

The delay reflects “ongoing market-wide Bloomberg system issues,” wrote the UK’s Debt Management Office in a statement. And the EU echoed that, saying its move reflected “global technical problems with Bloomberg.”

VF Corp. sunk 12% on Wednesday after forecasting a bigger-than-expected loss and warning investors it was rushing products to the US to beat the 90-day window of tariff pauses from the Trump administration.

 

The owner of brands such as Timberland and Vans sees an operating loss of as much as $125 million for this quarter. Analysts on average expected a loss of $73.1 million.

 

The shares had already declined 33% this year through Tuesday as the apparel maker struggles with increased costs due to tariffs and a consumer that’s been pulling back from discretionary goods.NewsLive TVMarketPopular CategoriesCalculatorsTrending NowLet's Connect with CNBCTV 18Network 18 Group :©TV18 Broadcast Limited. All rights reserved.