Near record highs, stocks face fresh test from bond yields | CNN Business

The S&P 500 on Friday clinched its eighth straight weekly gain, the index’s longest winning streak since 2023. The reasons might sound familiar: strong corporate earnings and AI enthusiasm as investors look past concerns about the war with Iran. But in the bond market, bad vibes are shaking investors – and could check stocks’ ability to keep climbing. US Treasury yields, which help set interest rates across the economy, are trading at their highest levels in a year. Yields rise when bond prices fall. Traders now expect the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates on hold in the coming months, with chance of a rate hike later this year, according to CME FedWatch. That’s because the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, oil prices are at four-year highs and inflation expectations are moving higher. Higher Treasury yields mean more expensive loans and mortgage rates, burdening consumers when sentiment is at record lows, according to the University of Michigan’s long-running survey of consumers. High gas prices, cost of living send US consumer sentiment to all-time low When Treasury yields rise above one year-highs, “it gets harder for the stock market to ignore; it gets harder fo