By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The British pound touched a two-month high versus the U.S. dollar on Wednesday as Britain and the European Union moved closer to a Brexit deal, while a tech-sector selloff weighed on Wall Street and on stocks globally.
Traders moved out of technology shares and into bank stocks that rose sharply after the nominee to head the Federal Reserve said some regulations could be scaled back, while acknowledging interest rates could gradually continue to rise.
"We are certainly seeing a change in leadership at least for today in that we are taking profits from technology and redistributing those profits to areas that will benefit from lower taxes, less regulation, higher interest rates and kind of later stages of the economic cycle," said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors in Boston.
The U.S. Senate could vote on a tax overhaul plan as early as Thursday as a procedural hurdle is expected to be passed Wednesday. The Republican plan, seen as cutting corporate taxes, is seen by some analysts as a boon for U.S. stocks.
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Despite the tech selloff, the S&P 500 tech sector is up over 35 percent in 2017, by far the best performing of the 11 S&P industry sectors.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> rose 86.57 points, or 0.36 percent, to 23,923.28, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 2.88 points, or 0.11 percent, to 2,624.16 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 98.52 points, or 1.43 percent, to 6,813.84.
Emerging market stocks lost 0.65 percent.
Traders in Asian stocks were cautious over the latest missile test by North Korea and concerns at recent softness in Chinese shares.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> closed 0.36 percent lower, while Japan's Nikkei <.N225> rose 0.49 percent.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index <.FTEU3> rose 0.25 percent and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe <.MIWD00000PUS> shed 0.12 percent.
Britain's FTSE fell, lagging a broad-based rebound in European shares as the stronger sterling hurt the internationally-exposed companies in the index.
Sterling > was last trading at $1.3419, up 0.62 percent on the day.
Even as the British currency hit a two-month high some investors were wary of rushing in to buy the pound until more details emerged from a EU summit on Dec 14-15.
"There is a lot of water that has to flow under this particular bridge before we see investors becoming optimistic about the pound in their portfolios," said Jeremy Stretch, head of G10 FX strategy at CIBC Capital Markets.
The dollar index <.DXY> fell 0.08 percent, with the euro > up 0.15 percent to $1.1857.
The Japanese yen weakened 0.31 percent versus the greenback at 111.83 per dollar.
Bitcoin rose over $11,000 to hit a record high for the sixth day in a row after gaining more than $1,000 in just 12 hours, stoking concerns that a rapidly swelling bubble could be set to burst.
The cryptocurrency had a session high of $11,395 and a low of $9,250 and was last at $9,868.97.
Oil futures' prices fell in a volatile session on conflicting statements from oil ministers a day ahead of OPEC's meeting in Vienna, as members debate the path for an extension of the group's agreement to cap supplies.
U.S. crude
Benchmark U.S. 10-year notes > last fell 11/32 in price to yield 2.3757 percent, from 2.337 percent late on Tuesday.
The 30-year bond > last fell 31/32 in price to yield 2.8128 percent, from 2.765 percent late on Tuesday.
Spot gold > dropped 0.7 percent to $1,284.55 an ounce. U.S. gold futures
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(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, additional reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed, Lewis Krauskopf and David Gaffen; Editing by Andrew Hay and Nick Zieminski)
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
