Dow drops 300 points, hurt by rising Treasury yields and a decline in Walmart

U.S. stocks fell on Thursday as Treasury yields reversed course from the decline seen in the prior trading day following the Treasury Department’s debt buyback announcement.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 337 points, or 0.6%. The S&P 500 lost 0.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.7%.

Bond yields advanced on Thursday, climbing back from Wednesday’s slide after the Treasury Department said it will at least double repurchases of 10-, 20- and 30-year debt in the next few months. That comes after the 30-year Treasury bond yield spiked to its highest level in nearly 20 years earlier this week.

The yield on the 10-year bond gained more than 4 basis points to 4.696%, while the 30-year yield added more than 4 basis points at 5.236%.

Also weighing on equities, oil prices rose again amid increasing tensions between Iran and the U.S. President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post late Wednesday that the U.S. would begin “most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country” against Iran. “This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale,” he wrote.

West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 1% to trade above $87 per barrel, while global benchmark Brent crude futures moved up 1% to above $93 a barrel.