Stocks and bond yields fall

Stocks fell on Thursday.

The S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent while the STOXX Europe 600 and Nikkei 225 both fell 1 percent.

US crude fell 1.3 percent.

US Treasuries rose on foreign demand. The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 1.678 percent, its lowest settlement since its 2016 trough of 1.642 percent in February.

“I’m not reading the fact that the 10-year yield is so low as an indictment of the U.S. economy,” said Michael Purves, chief global strategist at Weeden & Co. “It’s more a function of aggressive monetary policies overseas.”

However, even as foreigners have been pouring money into US Treasuries, they have been pulling money out of US stocks. Bloomberg reports that foreign investors dumped $128 billion in US stocks over the past year.