(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks fell after the best four-day rally in a year for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Treasuries slid amid comments from Federal Reserve officials, while China trade data spurred a rally in commodities.
The S&P 500 declined 0.2% at 11:53 a.m. in New York after rallying 3.9% in the past four sessions. Ten-year yields climbed to the highest in two weeks. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.8% for a sixth day of gains. The euro fell against the dollar on speculation the European Central Bank may charge lenders to deposit spare cash. Turkey is selling the longest-dated dollar bonds on record. The S&P GSCI gauge of 24 raw materials rose 0.3% as oil jumped to the highest level since October.
Amazon.com Inc. fell after an analyst downgrade and Procter & Gamble Co. tumbled after cutting its earnings forecast. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said he expects U.S. output to grow 3% this year, after Fed Chairman Janet Yellen said yesterday only a “notable change” in economic prospects would lead policy makers to slow the pace of reductions. The House of Representatives voted to suspend the debt limit. Cisco Systems Inc. and Whole Foods Market Inc. are set to release results today. China’s export and import growth unexpectedly accelerated in January.
“We’re taking a breather here,” Phil Orlando, New York- based chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors Inc., which oversees about $376 billion, said in a phone interview. “Washington has essentially gotten out of the way, Yellen has told us monetary policy will be a continuation of what we’ve seen and we have a sense of what’s going to happen with the taper.”
AMAZON, P&G
Procter & Gamble lost 2.2% after the world’s largest consumer-products maker cut its forecasts for profit and sales growth. Amazon slid 3.8% after UBS AG lowered the online retailer’s rating. Dow Chemical Co. fell 1% as an internal review concluded a breakup plan would reduce the company’s value. TripAdvisor Inc. jumped 8.2% as fourth- quarter revenue beat analysts’ estimates.
Bullard, a supporter of tapering bond purchases, said today in New York that fourth-quarter job growth was “pretty good” and forecast that inflation will speed up toward the 2% target. Yellen yesterday fueled bets the economy is strong enough to weather further stimulus cuts, which she said would continue in “measured steps.”
BOND YIELDS
The 10-year Treasury note yield rose three basis points to 2.76%. The U.S. is scheduled to sell $24 billion of 10- year notes today and $16 billion of 30-year bonds tomorrow. It auctioned $30 billion of three-year securities yesterday.
The Fed has twice reduced the size of the monthly asset- purchase program, lowering bond buying to $65 billion in February from $85 billion last year. Three rounds of stimulus under previous Chairman Ben S. Bernanke have helped push the S&P 500 as much as 173% higher from a 12-year low in 2009.
In Europe, the Stoxx 600 capped its longest winning streak of the year with a sixth straight gain, as two shares rose for every one that fell and 18 of the 19 main groups gained.
ING Groep NV advanced 3.6% and Societe Generale SA, France’s second-largest bank, rose 4.7%. Telecity Group Plc slumped 9.6% after the U.K. manager of Internet infrastructure posted revenue that missed analysts’ projections.
“We are positive on European equities,” Herbert Perus, who helps oversee about $36 billion as head of equities at Raiffeisen Capital Management in Vienna, said by phone. “Some people feared that we would see some big earnings misses, but those fears are fading. We had a relatively calm discussion from Yellen on future tapering in the U.S. The risk is not so big.”
The euro slid 0.3% to $1.3595. The ECB is “very seriously” considering negative deposit rates, Reuters reported Executive Board member Benoit Coeure as saying.
The pound strengthened against all but one of its 16 major peers, climbing 0.8% to $1.6579. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said the country’s recovery gathered momentum.
Turkey is selling securities that mature in February 2045, counting on investors overlooking a corruption probe and accelerating outflows that drove the lira to an all-time low.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index advanced 0.9% to the highest level in almost three weeks, with benchmark gauges in Poland, South Africa, Thailand and the Czech Republic climbing at least 1%. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of mainland stocks listed in Hong Kong added 1.4%, advancing 4% in two days, the biggest back-to-back rally since November.
Overseas shipments from China rose 10.6% from a year earlier, compared with the median projection of economists for a 0.1% gain, the General Administration of Customs said today in Beijing. Imports advanced 10%, leaving a trade surplus of $31.9 billion, the widest for January since 2009.
“Chinese trade data came in much better than expected,” Dariusz Kowalczyk, a Hong Kong-based strategist at Credit Agricole CIB, said in a note today. “The data suggests that growth slowdown was not as bad as feared. The numbers are positive for risk globally.”
MSCI Inc. is scheduled to announce its quarterly index reviews later today, according to its website.
West Texas Intermediate oil rose 0.8% to $100.70 a barrel, the highest level since October, after a government report showed inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, fell for a second week.
Copper advanced 1.3% in New York. China’s purchases of the refined metal surged a record 536,000 tons, according to the nation’s customs agency. The country is the biggest buyer of copper used in wires and pipes.
Silver for delivery in March rose 0.6% to $20.295 an ounce, and an eighth successive daily advance would be the longest streak since April 2011. Gold added 0.3% to $1,293, trading near a three-month high.
Australia’s currency retreated 0.1% to 90.27 U.S. cents after earlier touching 90.67 U.S. cents, the highest since Jan. 13.
