Wall Street stocks fell, while bond yields and the dollar rose on Thursday as investors worried that aggressive U.S. policy tightening could hurt the economy, while the European Central Bank signalled a steady reduction of stimulus.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield jumped, following two days of declines, after a flurry of economic data such as retail sales and jobless claims and as the ECB signalled less aggressive tightening plans than expected.
The U.S. Federal Reserve should reasonably consider raising interest rates by a half percentage point at its next meeting in May, New York Fed President John Williams said on Thursday, in a further sign even more cautious policymakers at the central bank are on board with a bigger rate hike.
This was after the ECB said it plans to cut bond purchases – known as quantitative easing – this quarter, then…