Bonds Climb, Stocks Take a Breather: Daily Markets Wrap

Rising liquidity on both sides of the Atlantic boosted global bond prices Friday, but equities took a breather after climbing in recent months. Light volume on several stock exchanges showed traders were also taking a breather.

The European Central Bank's $700 million cash injection into the euro zone this week boosted bond sales in Spain and Italy, and the Federal Reserve bought $197 billion of Treasuries, cutting U.S. borrowing costs.

News that China has been diversifying its reserves away from the dollar drew yawns.

Stocks. Global equity indexes closed mixed. Asian stocks posted gains, while surging bank stocks paced several European indexes higher. Commodity and industrial issues led U.S. indexes lower, but the Nasdaq Composite notched its eighth straight weekly increase in the last nine weeks and the S&P 500 hovered near its highest level since 2008.

Bonds. The yield on Treasuries rose, reversing a three-session decline. Spain and Italy took advantage of a euro zone flush with cash from ECB lending to conduct successful bond auctions that cut the securities' yields.

Currencies. The dollar rose against both the euro, which hovered around $1.32, and the yen, with one greenback buying slightly less than 82 yen. The rupee fell to a three-year low.

Commodities. Crude oil lost 2 percent to settle at $106.70. Gold fell to $1,708.90 on the Comex, a five-week low. For the week the yellow metal lost 3.7 percent. Agricultural commodities were mixed: Lumber, wheat, sugar, soybeans and lean hogs were up; coffee, corn and live cattle were down.