Wall Street Falls as Rising Treasury Yields Intensify Pressure on Stocks

Wall Street's major indices dipped slightly on Friday as the market took a breather following the previous day's strong gains. Investor sentiment is being affected by a renewed rise in US Treasury yields.

Market participants are weighing an event-packed week, whose main themes were the standoff over artificial intelligence safety and the Federal Reserve's first interest rate hike in more than three years.

At the same time, Friday's trading is being influenced by so-called "quadruple witching" — the day when stock index futures, index options, individual stock options and single-stock futures contracts all expire simultaneously. This event occurs four times a year — in March, June, September and December — and can increase volume and volatility in the final hours of trading.

According to Rick Gardner, Chief Investment Officer at RGA Investments, Friday's "quadruple witching" could further amplify market volatility, especially against the backdrop of the market's reassessment of the new interest rate environment following the Fed's Wednesday decision and the seasonal volatility typical of September.

As of 13:40 New York time, the S&P 500 was down 0.1%, to 7,627.07 points, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was trading nearly flat, at 26,411.64 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen 0.4%, to 51,589.19 points.

In the previous trading session, the indices posted strong gains: the S&P 500 rose 1.1%, the Nasdaq Composite 1.7%, and the Dow Jones 0.6%. The rally was supported by falling oil prices and declining Treasury yields, though yields rose again on Friday.

An additional source of pressure on the market is the Fed's rate hike and comments from central bank Chair Kevin Warsh regarding possible future changes to borrowing costs. On Friday, the 10-year US Treasury yield rose to approximately 5%.

At the same time, investors continue to watch the artificial intelligence sector closely. During the week, executives at major technology companies spoke about the need for some slowdown in AI development, raising further questions in the market about the sector's pace of growth and the sustainability of massive capital expenditures.