By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- U.S. stock markets opened higher on Monday amid growing expectations that the slowdown visible in the U.S. and world economies will force the Federal Reserve to stop raising U.S. interest rates.
Those hopes have driven a sharp rally (juiced by short-covering) in government bonds over the last week, driving benchmark Treasury yields down all along the yield curve. By the open, the 10-year Treasury yield was at 3.68%, down another 12 basis points from Friday's close and down 34 basis points from last week's peak. The 2-year yield, more sensitive to expectations of Fed action, was flat from Friday at 4.12%, but still down nearly a quarter-point from its peak.
By 09:35 ET (13:35 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 290 points, or 1.0%, at 29,015 points. The S&P 500 was up 0.8% and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.4%.
The Nasdaq was underperforming after some disappointing news from Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), which said its third quarter deliveries were around 4% below consensus forecasts. CEO Elon Musk lamented the problems of getting sufficient transportation capacity to meet the company's usual surge in shipments at the end of the quarter.
Tesla stock gapped down 7.4% to its lowest since mid-July.