US stocks dip as 30-year Treasury yield reaches highest since 2002

US stocks finished modestly lower on September 29 as investors sold long-term Treasury bonds, pushing the 30-year yield to about 5.62%, its highest level since June 2002. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions, so the milestone signals that investors are demanding more return to lend money to the US for decades. Markets were weighing higher energy costs and the risk that inflation could stay stubborn enough to keep the Federal Reserve from easing policy—or require more rate increases. That matters beyond the bond market: higher government yields lift borrowing costs across the economy and make future corporate profits less valuable in today’s dollars, putting pressure on share prices.