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U.S. Treasury Bond Yields Rise — and Stock Markets Fall — on January Jobs Report

Sean Gallup | Getty Images News | Getty Images

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What you need to know today

  • Google announced Bard, an artificial intelligence chatbot technology that it says will compete directly with OpenAI's ChatGPT. Minutes later, Microsoft confirmed plans to host a news event Tuesday likely related to ChatGPT. Not to be left behind, Baidu said it will launch "Ernie bot," its own AI chatbot, boosting its shares 13%.
  • Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, will suspend U.S. dollar deposits and withdrawals as of February 8, the company said without explaining why. The move affects Binance customers outside the United States, but not in it.
  •  PRO Not everyone is excited about AI. "Fast Money" trader Dan Nathan warned investors about getting swept up in the hype, calling the AI craze "Sillyville."

The bottom line

U.S. stock markets are feeling the price of more expensive money.

January's U.S. jobs report was so astoundingly positive on all fronts that it raised the prospect of more interest rate hikes later in the year. U.S. treasury yields, accordingly, climbed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was up by nearly 12 basis points at 3.651% — its highest since Jan. 11. The 2-year Treasury yield was trading at 4.485% after climbing more than 18 basis points.

The rate-sensitive Nasdaq Composite posted the biggest loss of the three big indexes, sliding 1%. The S&P 500 edged down by 0.61%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped fractionally by 0.1%. Whether the markets will extend their two-day trough depends on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech in Washington today. If Powell appears more hawkish than he did during his press conference last week, investors can expect markets to experience a deeper — and perhaps prolonged — rout.

Even so, tech companies and investors are hoping that artificial intelligence can reignite markets. Google on Monday announced a new artificial intelligence chatbot technology named Bard. It's the company's response to OpenAI's ChatGPT, the wildly popular AI chatbot that received a multibillion-dollar investment from Microsoft. Chinese firm Baidu joined the bandwagon Tuesday and said its own AI chatbot, named Ernie, will complete internal testing in March. If those chatbots prove successful, they could not only attract a huge infusion of cash into markets — Baidu's shares have skyrocketed 18% since the company's announcement — but also fundamentally change the way we work.

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