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Xi lands in Washington as Wall Street's yield selloff runs into day two

5 min read
Market News

Xi Jinping arrived in Washington for his first US state visit in over a decade, setting up Thursday's Trump-Xi summit, as Wall Street closed lower for a second straight session on surging Treasury yields.

Xi lands in Washington as Wall Street's yield selloff runs into day two

Xi Jinping arrived in Washington on Wednesday night for his first US state visit in more than a decade, setting up Thursday's Trump-Xi summit at the White House on trade, technology and Taiwan, with Iran also on the agenda. Expectations for concrete deliverables are low — an AI "hotline" proposal is the most tangible item floated so far. The geopolitical set piece lands on a market already unsettled: US stocks closed lower for a second straight session on Wednesday as Treasury yields pushed to a 19-year high, with the S&P 500 falling 0.75% to 7,706.03, the Nasdaq Composite dropping 1.13% to 26,936.04, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average shedding 352.10 points (0.68%) to 51,511.59. Ten of eleven S&P sectors fell, led by communication services, utilities and consumer discretionary.

What to watch

  • Initial jobless claims (forecast 201K vs. a prior 196K) and August new home sales, both due Thursday morning at 8:30am and 10:00am ET.
  • The Trump-Xi meeting itself at the White House, covering trade, technology and Taiwan.
  • The next FOMC decision falls October 27-28; CME FedWatch-implied odds of a hike there stand near 73%, having climbed from the "above 70%" level flagged as of Wednesday evening.

Markets

The 10-year Treasury yield held near 5.1% as of Wednesday's close, its highest since July 2007, after Fed Governor Michael Barr said "further policy adjustments are likely to be needed" to bring inflation back to target; the 2-year yield rose more than 13 basis points to 4.9%.

European bourses were mixed on Wednesday. The FTSE 100 slipped 0.29% to 10,708, while Germany's DAX bucked the softness to add 0.10%, closing at 25,600. The broader Stoxx 600 and Stoxx 50 were about flat, down roughly 0.2%, as traders weighed swinging oil prices tied to signals out of Saudi Arabia.

Commodities

Brent crude held below $99 a barrel, near an 11-day low, extending a multi-session decline as signs of progress in US-Iran talks eased the supply-risk premium; WTI traded roughly $88.70-$90.50. Gold consolidated around $4,290-$4,320 an ounce, up roughly 21% year-to-date but still well off its January 28, 2026 record of $5,589.38, as investors weigh safe-haven demand against elevated real yields.

Crypto

As of 05:55 UTC Thursday, bitcoin traded at $84,133.89, down 0.3% from the prior UTC-day close of $84,397.60 and down about 2.7% from a day earlier, when it stood near $86,498. The move continues Wednesday's yield-driven slide, concentrated in a sharp drop between 14:00 and 15:00 UTC that coincided with the hot PMI print and Barr's remarks, followed by a grind lower through the New York session and a flattening out overnight in Asia. Ether held near $2,687, essentially flat on the day. Among the other majors, SOL and BNB were little changed, XRP added about 0.5%, and dogecoin was the session's standout, up roughly 1.7% to $0.09428 — a quiet crypto session overall, with no dramatic mover.

What it means for crypto trading

The nearer-term catalyst for crypto stays the Fed repricing — October hike odds near 73% against a 19-year-high 10-year yield — plus Thursday's jobless-claims and new-home-sales prints, rather than the Trump-Xi summit, which markets broadly expect to produce modest, non-market-moving headlines. A soft claims print or any dovish walk-back would help stabilize risk appetite across equities and crypto alike; a hawkish surprise would extend the leg lower that has already pulled bitcoin about 2.7% off Wednesday's open.

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