Wall Street holds stronger as bond yields and bitcoin stabilize

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is holding stronger on Tuesday as both bond yields and bitcoin stabilize.

The S&P 500 rose 0.5%, coming off its first loss in six days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 180 points, or 0.4%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% higher.

MongoDB helped lead the market and jumped 25.1% after the database company delivered stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. United Natural Foods also climbed after reporting a stronger profit than expected, and it rose 10.6%.

They helped offset a 3.5% drop for Signet Jewelers, which gave a forecast for revenue in the holiday shopping season that fell short of analysts’ expectations. The jeweler said it’s expecting “a measured consumer environment.”

The U.S. economy has been holding up overall, but that’s masking sharp divisions underneath the surface. Lower-income households are struggling with inflation that’s still higher than anyone would like. Richer households, meanwhile, are benefiting from a stock market that’s within 0.7% of its all-time high set in late October.

In the bond market, Treasury yields were mixed following jumps the day before. The 10-year yield rose to 4.11% from 4.09% late Monday, while the two-year yield eased to 3.52% from 3.54%.

Higher yields can drag prices lower for all kinds of investments, and those seen as the most expensive can take the biggest hit.

Bitcoin, which tumbled below $85,000 on Monday as bond yields worldwide marched higher, pulled back above $90,000. That helped stocks of several crypto-related companies bounce back from Monday's sharp slide.

Strategy jumped 7.3% and more than made up for Monday's loss. Coinbase Global gained 4.8%, and Robinhood Markets rose 4% to nearly eliminate their losses from the day before.

Monday’s climb in yields came after the Bank of Japan hinted that it may raise interest rates there soon. But hopes are still high that the Federal Reserve will cut its main interest rate when it meets in Washington next week.

What comes after that for the Fed, though, is uncertain. The Fed has already cut its overnight interest rate twice this year in hopes of shoring up a slowing job market. But lower rates can fan inflation higher, and inflation has stubbornly remained above the Fed’s 2% target.

Complicating things is the U.S. government’s earlier shutdown, which delayed reports on the job market and other areas of the economy.

Investment giant Vanguard said its data suggest the U.S. labor market “remains stable but is still soft compared with last year.”

Overall hiring numbers are slower on a month-to-month basis. But fewer workers are going after job openings because of weaker immigration and an uptick in retirements, according to Adam Schickling, a senior U.S. economist at Vanguard. That in turn means hiring doesn't need to be as strong in the past to keep the unemployment rate steady.

In stock markets abroad, indexes moved modestly across much of Europe and Asia.

South Korea’s Kospi was an outlier and jumped 1.9% for one of the world’s bigger moves. Tech stocks helped lead the way, including rises of 2.6% for Samsung Electronics and 3.7% for chip company SK Hynix.

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