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U.S. stocks turned higher Monday trading, while Treasury yields and the dollar steadied into a monster week on Wall Street that could test a rally that's taken the S&P 500 to within touching distance of its all-time peak.
Updated at 2:34 PM EST
Holding gains
Stocks are holding onto to earlier gains heading into the final 90 minutes of trading, supported by a pullback in Treasury yields and only modestly higher crude prices.
The S&P 500 was marked 16 points, or 0.35% higher on the session as 10-year note yields eased to 4.229% following a solid $37 billion auction of re-opened notes.
WTI crude prices, meanwhile, settled 9 cents lower on the day at $71.32 per barrel, extending their autumn decline to around 19.4%.
Updated at 1:10 PM EST
Bonds breathe sigh of relief
A $37 billion auction of 10-year notes, a re-opening of last month's sale, drew solid overall bidding interest and solid participation from foreign buyers, according to preliminary data.
Investors placed bids of around $94 billion for the benchmark auction, generating a 'bid-to-cover' ratio of 2.53, up from last month's disappointing 2.45. So-called indirect bidders, comprised mostly of foreign central banks, took down 63.83% of the sale, down slightly from the 69.73% recorded last month.
Benchmark 10-year notes were last seen trading at 4.278%, little-changed from pre-auction levels, while 2-year notes eased to 4.752%
Stocks were also moving higher, with the S&P 500 up 10 points, or 0.22%, and the Dow up 107 points.
Updated at 12:07 PM EST
Zepbound weighs on Lilly
Eli Lily shares slumped nearly 4% in mi-day trading after data from a major clinical trial of Zepbound showed that patients regained a substantial amount of weight once they stopped taking daily injections of the its anti-obesity drug.
Related: Eli Lilly slumps after disappointing Zepbound weight-loss-drug trial
Updated at 10:37 AM EST
Gas prices easing
Gas prices extended their recent run of declines heading into the start of the week, with data from consumer advocate GasBuddy showing the national average falling for a 12th consecutive week to $3.11 per gallon.
Energy Department data, meanwhile, shows that gasoline prices fell nearly 8% from October to November, a move that is likely to put heavy downside pressure on the headline inflation reading.
Updated at 9:42 AM EST
Mixed open
The S&P 500, which closed at a March 2022 high on Friday and is less than 200 points from its January 2022 peak, was marked just a single point higher at the opening bell while the Dow gained 37 points.
The tech-focused Nasdaq, which is up 37.6% for the year and closed at the highest levels since January on Friday, was down 42 points, or 0.21%.
Updated at 9:06 AM EST
Trimming the rate bet tree
Investors are starting to pare back bets on 2024 Fed rate cuts following last week's stronger-than-expected jobs report and a corresponding move higher in Treasury bond yields.
Markets are still expecting the Fed to lower its benchmark lending rate by a quarter of point, to between 5% and 5.25%, when it meets in May, but are now beginning to consider a slower pace of declines for the rest of the year as the economy avoids recession.
Updated at 7:23 AM EST
Macy's Christmas Cheer
Macy's (M) -) shares are soaring in pre-market trading, and were last marked 17.8% higher at $20.49 each, following multiple reports that suggest the iconic retailer and Bloomingdale's owner is the target of a $5.8 billion buyout from private investors.
Related: Macy's soars on reports of $5.8 billion private equity buyout interest
Stock Market Today
Investors will navigate a busy schedule of macroeconomic data, central-bank rate decisions and Treasury bond auctions this week as traders begin to scale back some of bets on a spring interest-rate cut from the Federal Reserve following a stronger-than-expected November jobs report last Friday included nearly 200,00 new hires and firmer wage gains.
The reading probably won't affect Wednesday's Federal Reserve policy decision, which is expected to kept rates unchanged at a near two-decade high of 5.25% to 5.5%, but a softer-than-expected inflation report on Tuesday could alter Chairman Jerome Powell's messaging heading into the start of next year.
That, alongside a resilient job market, a growing economy and firming earnings projections, looks to be laying the groundwork for a so-called soft landing in 2024 — inflation eases with no recession. That view is correspondingly supporting stocks into the final weeks of the year and beyond.
"The U.S. economy continues to chug along and is still headed for a soft landing. Interest rates have largely normalized, and markets are following suit," said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial Network in Waltham, Mass.
"People are feeling better as they can get good jobs at good wages — and then go shopping. That is a good place to be as we enter the holiday season."
Benchmark 10-year note yields were marked 4 basis points higher from Friday's close at 4.276%, while 2-year notes rose 6 basis points, following a 13 basis point surge after Friday's jobs report, to change hands at 4.765%.
In overseas markets, European stocks edged 0.02% lower in mid-day Frankfurt trading, following the highest close in February on Friday. Investors await four key central-bank rate decisions, including from the Bank of England and the European Central Bank, later in the week.
Overnight in Asia, another negative inflation reading in China stoked calls for further economic support from Beijing and lifted stocks modestly higher.
Still, the regionwide MSCI ex-Japan index ended the session 0.31% lower, while the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo finished 1.5% higher in a follow-on rally from Wall Street's Friday close.
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