Global stocks fall as oil prices and bond yields intensify rate concerns

Global equity markets weakened Thursday as rising oil prices, elevated Treasury yields and expectations of tighter monetary policy pressured investor sentiment.

U.S. stock-index futures fell sharply, with Quartz reporting that Dow futures dropped 500 points as oil climbed above $105 a barrel. The Wall Street Journal also reported falling Dow futures following a fresh tanker attack, while Yahoo Finance said U.S. equity indexes remained lower in midday trading as crude prices jumped. The declines extended Wednesday’s losses and pulled U.S. stocks further from recent records, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

Higher Treasury yields were weighing particularly heavily on some of the market’s earlier 2026 winners, MarketWatch reported, even as investor attention remained concentrated on a small group of large technology companies. Barron’s said the small-cap Russell 2000 was nearing correction territory as large-cap stocks outperformed, while Seeking Alpha described positioning in the Russell 2000 as depressed.

Indian shares also declined in early trading after the Reserve Bank of India raised its repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.50% and shifted its policy stance from “neutral” to “calibrated tightening.” The Sensex fell 264.97 points to 72,408.15, while the Nifty dropped 87.50 points to 22,507.65. Brent crude was 2.02% higher at $102.20 a barrel at the time, and foreign institutional investors had sold ₹6,121.37 crore of Indian equities Wednesday, exchange data cited by The Hindu showed. Major Asian markets were also lower.