Asia Stocks Rise, Bonds Steady Before US Inflation: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) — Asian stocks gained and bonds steadied after a bruising selloff as traders awaited a crucial US inflation reading for clues on the path of interest rates. The dollar headed for its best month since June.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 0.9%, with 10 of its 11 industry groups advancing. SoftBank Group Corp., an investor in OpenAI, rose more than 6% after people familiar with the matter said the artificial intelligence startup sought to raise at least $30 billion in fresh funding at a $1.4 trillion valuation.

Equity-index futures indicated the advance would spread to Europe and Wall Street.

Bonds remained in focus after yields on the longest-maturity Treasuries reached their highest since 2002 in the New York session. Yields steadied across the curve after rising earlier this week, as a rally in oil prompted traders to price in further interest-rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

Brent climbed 0.8% to about $103.40 a barrel, recouping some of the losses from Tuesday. Crude oil flows from the Middle East are returning toward pre-war levels despite continued risks to shipping, according to separate estimates from JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Oil prices and US-Iran tensions remain key sources of uncertainty, with markets looking for clearer signs of progress in negotiations after conflicting signals in recent days. Global bond yields have climbed to multi-year highs as elevated energy costs threaten to keep inflation persistent and reinforce expectations for further Fed interest-rate hikes.

“The selloff in bonds can stop for one of the following reasons: a quick resolution of the US-Iran conflict, a material fall in stock prices driven by a slowdown in hard economic data, or lower earnings and forward guidance,” said Arjun Vij, a fund manager at JPMorgan Asset Management.

Yields on Treasury 30-year bonds rose for a sixth day on Tuesday as investors demanded greater compensation to hold the securities amid concerns about persistent inflation, higher government spending and a surge in corporate borrowing to finance the AI buildout.

Traders are ramping up bets that Treasury yields will keep climbing, raising the risk of an abrupt unwind of those positions on any sign of a marked economic cooling. Money markets are pricing a series of rate hikes over the next year.

Elsewhere, Chinese property stocks slumped after Beijing rolled out a mortgage subsidy program that analysts said fell short of expectations.

A Bloomberg gauge of the dollar steadied, wrapping up its best month since June as the Fed’s renewed focus on taming inflation pushed rate expectations and US bond yields higher. Elsewhere, the yen strengthened 0.3% to 156.85 per dollar.

Traders will now turn their attention to Wednesday’s Bureau of Economic Analysis’s Personal Consumption Expenditures reading, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation. August’s personal income and outlays report should show an acceleration in monthly headline and core inflation, according to Bloomberg Economics.

Upside surprises would reinforce the Fed’s hawkish stance and support the case for further tightening, Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade, wrote in a note. Softer numbers, however, could raise questions about the need for a follow-up rate hike in October and potentially take some of the steam out of the recent rise in Treasury yields, he said.

“Between the oil price, bond yields and key US inflation and jobs data, there are plenty of things to keep an eye on for the rest of the week,” Waterer wrote.

Corporate Highlights:

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer John Ternus is moving to overhaul the iPhone maker in an effort to accelerate product development, broaden its range of devices and create a leaner organization with a greater focus on engineering. Anthropic PBC warned that its technology poses “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity” and mapped out plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars in its prospectus, Reuters reported.

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

S&P 500 futures rose 0.2% as of 12:57 p.m. Tokyo time Japan’s Topix rose 1.6% Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.8% Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was little changed The Shanghai Composite rose 0.3% Euro Stoxx 50 futures rose 0.7% Currencies

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro was little changed at $1.1333 The Japanese yen rose 0.3% to 156.86 per dollar The offshore yuan was little changed at 6.7057 per dollar Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin fell 0.4% to $83,243.13 Ether fell 0.7% to $2,669.7 Bonds

The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 5.23% Japan’s 10-year yield was unchanged at 3.090% Australia’s 10-year yield declined three basis points to 5.34% Commodities

West Texas Intermediate crude rose 0.5% to $89.79 a barrel Spot gold fell 0.2% to $4,173.85 an ounce This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from Ruth Carson.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.