US stocks and government bonds slipped on Thursday after stronger than expected data on American retail sales raised expectations that the Federal Reserve would soon begin reining in its stimulus efforts.
Wall Street’s blue-chip S&P 500 and Dow Jones indices both closed down 0.2 per cent in New York. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite index retraced its earlier move lower and ended the day up 0.1 per cent. US Treasury prices were also under pressure, pushing the yield on the benchmark 10-year note up 0.04 percentage points to 1.34 per cent.
The soft session came after a report from the commerce department showed US retail sales climbed 0.7 per cent in August compared with July, widely topping economists’ expectations for a 0.8 per cent decline.