European shares rebound as oil prices ease and bond selloff slows

European equities caught a breather on September 16 after two straight sessions of losses, with a dip in oil prices and a pause in the relentless bond selloff giving investors just enough room to exhale. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.4% to 636.81 points during early London trading. Germany’s DAX index matched that 0.4% gain, while banks, the sector that had taken the worst beating during the recent crude and yield surge, led the charge higher. Barclays climbed 1.4% and Standard Chartered added 1.7%, clawing back some of the ground lost during a brutal stretch for rate-sensitive financials. Oil and bonds: the twin pressure valves Brent and WTI crude prices both fell roughly 0.6% after a multi-day rally had pushed Brent above $108, driven by supply anxieties linked to the ongoing US-Iran conflict in the Middle East. On the bond side, the US 10-year Treasury yield slipped back below the psychologically important 5% threshold. Just one session earlier, it had touched its highest level since 2007. All eyes on the Fed The rebound unfolded hours before the Federal Reserve’s latest interest-rate decision, where markets had priced in a 93% probability of a 25-basis-point hike. If ...