Stocks stumble, yields jump on rates outlook; oil rallies

Stocks stumble, yields jump on rates outlook; oil rallies

NEW YORK - Global stock markets stumbled again on Friday and U.S. Treasury yields climbed as cautious investors worried about how imminent U.S. interest rate hikes would affect the economy. A warning from the largest U.S. bank JPMorgan Chase & Co that its profitability may fall below a medium-term target cast another pall on Wall Street. By early evening, MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe had shed 0.36%. The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed down 1.01% and had its worst week since Nov. 26, weighed in part by declines in technology stocks. In the United States, a spate of bargain hunting toward the end of the day helped stocks to narrow losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.56%, the S&P 500 .SPX ended flat, and the Nasdaq Composite flipped into the black, rising 0.59%. "We are now entering a period where the Federal Reserve will engage in a never-before-seen experiment: raising interest rates off zero and reducing the size of its balance sheet in the same year," said Nicholas Colas, co-founder of DataTrek Research. "The market is still left wondering what results will come from their decisions," Colas said. In line with expectations of rising rates, benchmark 10-year