GLOBAL MARKETS CALL: Will The Bull Market Survive Higher Oil Prices & Bond Yields?

The price of Brent crude is back above $100 a barrel. Government bond yields are rising nearly everywhere, with the 10-year yields of Australia and the UK both above 5.00% and the US’s at 4.97%. Either development would normally be enough to break a global bull market in stocks. Neither has so far. That's because corporate earnings keep climbing.

The Fed, the Bank of England (BOE), and the Bank of Japan (BOJ) all meet this week. The Fed's decision matters the most to investors’ appetite for global risk. The BOJ's decision matters the most for the yen carry trade, which seems to be unwinding now that the yen is back up to 153.47 per dollar and short-term interest rates are rising in Japan. That unwinding might partly explain the global bond market selloff.