Wall Street to head in both directions as bond yields worry traders

On Wall Street, both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 hit record highs in the wake of Wednesday's Federal Reserve comments. But a subsequent rise in US Treasury yields to the highest since January last year has left things a little more up in the air, and US markets are heading for a mixed start. The Dow is forecast to open around 18 points higher at 33,033 and the S&P 20 points lower at 3954. The Nasdaq Composite, which missed out on the records, is set to fall 167 points to 13,358. Before the open come US weekly jobless claims, which are expected to show a fall from the previous figure. Dave Madden, market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said: "The US jobless claims reading at 12.30pm (UK time) is predicted to fall from 712,000 to 700,000. The report will be closely watched because there hasn’t been a reading below the 700,000 mark since March 2020." After the bell come third-quarter results from FedEx, whose second-quarter figures in December showed a strong performance thanks to the growth of e-commerce during the pandemic. Four things to watch for on Thursday: Big names in the earnings diary on Thursday will include sportswear retailer Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE), consulting group Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN) and delivery services group FedEx Corp (NYSE:FDX) Electric truck maker Nikola Corp (NASDAQ:NKLA) could also be in focus after one of its major partners, South Korean conglomerate Hanwha, decided to sell half of its stake in the firm Following the Fed yesterday, traders will be looking across the Atlantic for the latest interest rate decision and commentary from the Bank of England Meanwhile, other macro news in the diary includes the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index for March as well as US jobless claims data for last week