By Laila Kearney
The yield on the benchmark 10-year note hit a high of 3.232 percent following data released the previous day that was seen as increasing the odds a payrolls report due on Friday would also be stronger than expected.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the economy can expand for "quite some time," which also helped the yield curve steepen to its highest in two months.
Stocks, in turn, have fallen broadly.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 212.4 points, or 0.79 percent, to 26,615.99, the S&P 500 lost 20.51 points, or 0.70 percent, to 2,905 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 108.74 points, or 1.35 percent, to 7,916.35.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index lost 0.99 percent and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.02 percent.
The surge in Treasury yields has also prompted a rise in government bond yields across the globe.
"We saw very large overnight volumes during both the Tokyo and London trading hours, which was a catch-up in foreign sovereign markets to the very large sell-off in U.S. Treasuries yesterday," said Jon Hill, U.S. rates strategist at BMO Capital Markets.
Euro zone bond yields rose sharply, tracking their U.S. counterparts, while the "trans-Atlantic spread" between United States and German 10-year bond yields hit a three-decade high of around 275 bps. [GVD/EUR]
The U.S. dollar weakened against the euro but lingered near recent 11-month highs as investors digested U.S. economic data and Powell's remarks.
The dollar index fell 0.06 percent, with the euro up 0.28 percent to $1.1508.
Investors will now eye the U.S. government's September payroll report scheduled for release on Friday.
The exception of the day was Italy, where borrowing costs dropped for a second day after the government said it would cut budget deficit targets from 2020 and reduce its debt over the next three years.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Wednesday confirmed a deficit target of 2.4 percent of gross domestic product in 2019 and said it would fall to 2.1 percent in 2020 and 1.8 percent in 2021. [nL8N1WJ0RJ]
The estimates for 2020 and 2021 were lower than those initially reported, bringing further relief to bond markets rattled by the new government's plans to ramp up spending.
Oil slipped but held near four-year highs, supported by the imminent loss of Iranian supply through U.S. sanctions, but also tempered by the prospect of a rapid production increase from Saudi Arabia and Russia. [O/R]
Brent crude futures fell 64 cents to $85.65 a barrel, a 0.7 percent loss, by 11:44 a.m. EDT (1544 GMT), having risen to a late 2014 high of $86.74 on Wednesday.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 93 cents to $75.48 a barrel, a 1.2 percent loss.
(Additional reporting by Ritvik Carvalho, Amanda Cooper, Kate Duguid in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler)
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)