A three-day losing streak on the S&P 500 broke Thursday, as Micron Technology’s stronger-than-expected earnings helped steady Wall Street even as the 10-year Treasury yield continued to swing higher before giving back its gains later in the day.
Investors holding U.S. tech stocks came out ahead Thursday. Investors in European equities did not. That split, visible across markets on the same trading day, traces back to one shared cause: a bond market that lurched violently and then, in the United States at least, pulled back from the brink.
The S&P 500 rose 0.2% and snapped a three-day losing streak, according to figures reported by The Globe and Mail and confirmed in the BNN Bloomberg account. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 20.51 points to close at 50,926.56, while the Nasdaq composite ticked up 10.53 points to 26,871.60. Earlier in the session, the gains looked bigger: Global News reported the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 211 points, or 0.4%, and the S&P 500 rose 0.3% as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, before the rally faded through the day.
The 10-Year Treasury Yield’s Round Trip
The number driving everything Thursday was the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury. It edged up to 5.30% from 5.29% late Wednesday, BNN Bloomberg reported. Global News, filing earlier in the trading day, had the yield still rising, to 5.30% from 5.29%.
Both figures describe the same climb. They just caught it at different points. That is the story of this bond market in miniature: a number that moved enough within a single day to turn an early-morning headline into an afternoon footnote.
The scale of the move matters. According to the wire reporting, elevated yields drag on the economy because they raise borrowing costs for everyone while weighing down prices for stocks and other investments — which is precisely why its retreat to 5.23% from 5.29% late Wednesday was enough to flip the direction of Wall Street’s day.
London Falls 1.7%, Paris 1.6%, Frankfurt 1%
Europe did not get the afternoon relief. London’s stock index tumbled 1.7%, Paris fell 1.6% and Frankfurt dropped 1%, according to the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star-syndicated and BNN Bloomberg reporting. Global News, reporting earlier Thursday, measured London’s FTSE 100 down a more modest 0.8% and Paris’s CAC 40 fell 0.6% — figures that reflect the same session’s early hours, before the European declines deepened.
The French government bond market showed the volatility most starkly. The CAC 40 in Paris fell 0.6% following a similar, early-morning leap for the 10-year French government bond yield, swings the Globe and Mail called a punishing swing for the bond market, where moves get measured in hundredths of a percentage point
.
Why Yields Are Climbing: Oil, Inflation and Government Spending
Several forces are pushing yields upward, per the shared Associated Press reporting carried by the Globe and Mail, BNN Bloomberg and Heraldbulletin: concerns over elevated inflation and oil prices, indications that the U.S. economy remains on solid footing, and governments’ continued pattern of spending well beyond what they collect in revenue.
Oil did its part Thursday. According to the AP wire, Brent crude surged 4.4% to settle at $102.31 a barrel, extending what the reporting described as a yo-yo move on uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow the global oil industry to return to normal
. Global News, reporting earlier in the day, had Brent crude oil rose 1.9% to US$99.88 — another case of the same number shifting as the trading session wore on.
Economic data added to the inflation pressure. Another report also signaled the U.S. economy is powering through its many challenges. Fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, which could mean fewer layoffs.
Micron’s Forecast Lifts Memory Chips, Nvidia and Applied Materials
Micron Technology did the heaviest lifting for Wall Street. The AP wire reported that enthusiasm for the chip sector grew after Micron Technology posted a stronger quarterly profit than analysts had anticipated. The Globe and Mail noted Micron’s stock rose 3 per cent, pushing its remarkable year-to-date gain to 284.5 per cent.
Global News offered a different snapshot of the same stock, reporting Micron shares edged down 0.1% that morning, a dip analysts attributed to how far the stock had already climbed — it entered the day up more than 270 per cent for the year, dwarfing the S&P 500’s overall rise of less than 12 per cent. Micron said the company is benefiting from the AI boom, which Global News reported is driving demand for memory chips.
The optimism spread. Nvidia rose 0.6 per cent in the Globe and Mail’s account and was, per that reporting, the single strongest force lifting the S&P 500
; Global News had Nvidia up a smaller 0.6% earlier in the session. Alphabet climbed 1.5% after Google released its latest AI model, Gemini 4 Argon, Global News reported — a detail none of the other four sources mentioned.
Accenture Jumps 15.8%, McCormick Drops 4.9%
| Company | Move | Driver |
|---|---|---|
| Micron Technology | +3% (Globe and Mail); -0.1% intraday (Global News) | Stronger profit, upbeat forecast |
| Accenture | +15.8% | Profit beat, global growth |
| Nvidia | +1.1% (Globe and Mail); +0.6% intraday (Global News) | AI demand optimism |
| McCormick | -4.9% | Weak revenue forecast |
Nikkei Up 3.3%, Kospi Up 1.9%, Toronto Dips
Asian markets outran everyone else. Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 3.3% and South Korea’s Kospi climbed 1.9%, both gains credited to AI-driven optimism following Micron’s report, across the Globe and Mail, BNN Bloomberg and Global News accounts.
Canada’s picture was mixed.