Markets Struggle as Yields Bite; Gold Hits Record, Europe Services PMIs Mixed

U.S. stocks closed lower Tuesday as surging bond yields weighed on sentiment. The S&P 500 slipped 0.7%, while the Nasdaq lost 0.8%, with the 30-year Treasury yield briefly touching 5%, a threshold not seen in years.
Safe-haven flows boosted gold prices, which climbed another 1.7% to $3,534 per ounce, extending gains to fresh record highs.
On the corporate front, the U.S. government revoked TSMC’s authorization to freely sell advanced chips to China, escalating tech tensions between Washington and Beijing. Meanwhile, Kraft Heinz said it will split into two separate entities, a move investors see as part of a broader trend of unwinding a decade of misfired mega-mergers.
In energy markets, Russia and China struck a new gas supply deal, with volumes from the Yamal peninsula set to flow eastward. The gas had traditionally been shipped to Europe via the Yamal and Nord Stream pipelines, underscoring Moscow’s pivot away from its former core market.
In Europe, fresh services PMI data painted a mixed picture of activity:
•⁠ ⁠Eurozone: August final at 50.5, just below the flash estimate of 50.7, down from 51.0 in July.
•⁠ ⁠Germany: 49.3, signaling a return to contraction from 50.6.
•⁠ ⁠Italy: 51.5, marking a ninth month of expansion but easing from 52.3.
•⁠ ⁠Spain: 53.2, still in growth but slowing from 55.1.
•⁠ ⁠France: Edging closer to stabilization, with activity “nearly breaking even.”
Despite yields at multi-decade highs and bullion at record levels, European markets opened on a firmer footing, with investors bracing for labor market data later this week that may guide the Federal Reserve’s next steps.