GLOBAL MARKETS-Equities lose earlier gains and US bond yields rise

By Sinéad Carew and Alun John

NEW YORK/LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) - MSCI's global equities index slipped on Tuesday after touching a record high, while U.S. Treasury yields hit their highest in more than a month, as investors digested a slight rise in U.S. inflation and moderately positive quarterly results from big banks.

The latest economic data that showed U.S. consumer prices increased 0.3% in June, in line with forecasts, but the largest gain since January. Prices rose across goods from coffee to audio equipment to home furnishings in what economists saw as evidence the Trump administration's increasing import taxes are being passed through to consumers.

The U.S. Federal Reserve had put interest rate cuts on pause as it waited for data indicating the impact of tariffs. But after Tuesday's data, traders stuck to their bets that the Fed is more likely than not to cut rates in September, continuing to price around a 60% chance of a move after the data.

"Tariffs are in the data, but it’s not as devastating as many feared," said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. "It’s not that tariffs don’t matter, it’s just that they don’t matter to inflation as much or as mechanically as many feared."

On Wall Street at 11:24 a.m., the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 240.67 points, or 0.54%, to 44,218.98, the S&P 500 .SPX rose 2.51 points, or 0.04%, to 6,271.07 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC rose 140.70 points, or 0.68%, to 20,781.03.

It helped that tech-heavy Nasdaq was boosted by chip stocks with heavyweight Nvidia NVDA.O rallying on Tuesday after the AI chip leader said it would resume sales of its H20 chips to China, sending its shares up around 4%.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS fell 0.93 points, or 0.10%, to 922.53 after earlier touching a record high. The pan-European STOXX 600 .STOXX index fell 0.36%.

Also on Tuesday, investors processed results from JPMorgan Chase JPM.N and Citigroup .N> that beat expectations, but were met with a mixed market response.

JPMorgan was down 0.5%, while Citi shares rallied 2.7%. Wells Fargo WFC.N shares fell more than 5% as it cut its 2025 net interest income guidance even as it beat second-quarter profit expectations.

S&P 500 profits are expected to rise 5.8% year-over-year, according to LSEG data. The outlook has dimmed since the early April forecast of 10.2% growth, before Trump launched his trade war.

TRADE WAR STILL IN FOCUS

U.S. Treasury yields rose after initially slipping following the inflation data.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes US10YT=RR rose 5.4 basis points to 4.481%, from 4.427% late on Monday while the 30-year bond US30YT=RR yield rose 4.1 basis points to 5.0135%.

The 2-year note US2YT=RR yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, rose 5.9 basis points to 3.957%, from 3.898% late on Monday.

Trade was still an investor focus after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened over the weekend to impose 30% duties on the European Union and Mexico from August 1 - above the 20% on the EU he had initially proposed in April.

However, Trump said on Monday he was open to further negotiations before the tariffs kick in.

Japan is also reportedly trying to schedule high-level talks with the U.S. this Friday.

Polls in Japan showed that the ruling coalition may lose its majority in the upper house, in an upcoming election, to opponents who advocate more spending. This shook up Japan's government bond market and spilled to other markets earlier.

In currencies, the dollar reached a 15-week high against the Japanese yen JPY=, strengthening 0.79% to 148.87 yen.

The dollar index =USD, which measures the U.S. dollar against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.46% to 98.57.

The euro EUR= was down 0.45% at $1.1611 while sterling GBP= weakened 0.26% to $1.3392.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin BTC= fell 3.54% to $115,965.48 after hitting a record on Monday.

Oil prices were lower on Tuesday after Trump's 50-day deadline for Russia to end the Ukraine war and avoid sanctions eased immediate supply concerns.

U.S. crude CLc1 fell 0.55% to $66.61 a barrel and Brent LCOc1 fell to $68.97 per barrel, down 0.35% on the day.

Gold prices inched lower on Tuesday as market participants awaited tariff updates, while an inflation report showed a widely expected increase in U.S. consumer prices last month.

Spot gold XAU= fell 0.1% to $3,340.26 an ounce. U.S. gold futures GCc1 fell 0.31% to $3,341.00 an ounce.