Bonds dip, Nikkei charges higher

Bonds slipped, Japanese stocks jumped to a three-decade high and other Asian equities loitered near record peaks on Thursday as investors focused on U.S. stimulus prospects and extended bets on global recovery and growth.

Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.4% to its highest point since August 1990. It is up more than 8% in three weeks. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was steady and just a whisker short of Monday’s all-time high.

U.S. Treasuries, which had climbed overnight after some reassurances that the U.S. Federal Reserve would keep buying bonds, were sold again after CNN reported that President-elect Joe Biden is mulling a stimulus package as large as $2 trillion. The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasuries, which rises when prices fall, lifted 1.7 basis points in Asia.

Ten-year Treasury yields are up more than 19 basis points this year as investors bet on Biden’s borrow-and-spend agenda being able to clear a Democrat-controlled Congress – and as worry creeps in about when the Fed’s support might taper off.