Nasdaq at record, DAX in bull market, debt funds buybacks

Stocks mostly rose on Tuesday.

In the US, the S&P 500 was flat but the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.2 percent to hit a record high.

In Europe, the STOXX Europe 600 rose 0.9 percent as the DAX jumped 2.5 percent to put it in a bull market.

In Asia, the Nikkei 225 and Shanghai Composite Index both rose 0.7 percent.

Stocks rose despite US crude oil falling 0.6 percent.

The yield on the US 10-year Treasury note declined to 1.545 percent from 1.587 percent on Monday.

Low bond yields could keep the stock bull market alive by encouraging companies to use debt markets to finance stock buy-backs. From Bloomberg:

Led by Apple Inc. and CBS Corp., S&P 500 constituents have rushed to sell bonds to finance the repurchases of their own stock. The proportion of buybacks funded by debt rose above 30 percent in June for the first time since 2001, data compiled by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bloomberg show.