Wall Street retreats from its record as stocks fall worldwide

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are pulling back from their record on Wednesday.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3%, a day after topping its prior all-time high set in August. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 348 points, or 0.7%, as of 3:16 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% lower.

Stocks felt pressure as yields swung in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed as high as 5.36% in the morning, up from 5.27% late Tuesday.

Higher yields put downward pressure on prices for stocks and other investments. They can also slow the economy by making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money. But the 10-year yield eased back to 5.28% later in the day after the U.S. Treasury sold $39 billion of 10-year Treasurys at an auction, where the median yield was less than 5.26%.

Yields also swung with oil prices, which continue to yo-yo amid uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow the industry to return to normal. The International Energy Agency said Wednesday its members support accelerating the release of oil from inventories that they announced earlier this year, with a particular emphasis on diesel fuel.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, topped $102 in the morning, but it later settled at $100.20, down 0.4%. That’s well above its $72 price from before the war began, though it’s not as high as the nearly $110 it was scraping last month.

Also pushing up on bond yields are worries about how much debt the U.S. government and others worldwide have racked up, and how much more they add to it by the day.

The head of the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday that record levels of debt for governments is one of the three major crosscurrents driving where the global economy goes, along with artificial-intelligence technology and high energy prices.