Bonds & Stocks
A rally in some of the world's largest technology companies drove gains in US stocks as Treasury yields fell on hopes that Congress will pass a debt-ceiling deal to head off a default.
The artificial-intelligence hype continued to fuel appetite for tech shares, with the Nasdaq 100 up over 1% Tuesday and heading toward one of its best first five months of a year in the past quarter century. Nvidia Corp. climbed 3.7% and was poised to become the world's first chipmaker with a $1 trillion market capitalization after announcing several AI-related products over the weekend.
Economy
Spanish inflation slowed by more than anticipated, supporting the European Central Bank officials who say the continent's historic price spike is fading and interest-rate increases can soon end. May's reading moderated to 2.9% - the least since July 2021 - as fuel costs fell and the growth in food prices eased. The result follows April's uptick to 3.8% and is well below the 3.3% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
World
Japan's top currency official warned that the government would take action if needed in comments that follow a weakening of the yen to its lowest levels since last November. "It's important that currency markets reflect fundamentals and move in a stable manner. Excessive moves aren't desirable," top currency official Masato Kanda told reporters after the first meeting of Japan's Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Japan and Financial Services Agency since March. "The government will continue to closely monitor market moves, and will take appropriate responses if necessary."