S&P 500 Is Little Changed After U.S. 10-Year Yield Hits Two-Year High

The S&P 500 was relatively unchanged on Wednesday, pressured by elevated bond yields, as traders worried about the impact of rising oil prices on inflation.

The broad market index traded up 0.1%, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 187 points, or 0.4%.

The benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury note yield hit a high of 4.814% on the day, a level not seen since November 2023. Yields in the U.K., Germany and France also rose. In Japan, the 10-year government yield traded around multi-decade highs.

"Higher yields are proving to be the stock market's undoing," said Thierry Wizman, global foreign exchange and rates strategist at Macquarie Group. "They force analysts to discount higher earnings more aggressively, thus forcing [price-to-earnings] multiples downward."

Yields have been rising on fears inflation could increase due to higher oil prices. West Texas Intermediate crude futures hit $90 per barrel this week and were last trading around that level as the U.S. launched more military strikes on Iran, raising concern that the conflict could escalate once more.