NEW YORK, Aug 22 — Wall Street’s main indexes pared gains today, as US Treasury yields rose on growing worries about interest rates staying higher for longer, while gains in Nvidia shares fizzled out in the run up to the chip designer’s earnings.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note scaled over 15-year highs after a brief pullback, dragging equities lower.

"The reason why we’re seeing pressure on US stock market today is that we’re seeing the reality of higher yields having an impact on markets,” said Phil Blancato, chief executive officer of Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management.

The bond selloff has been driven by evidence of a strong US economy, which dampened hopes of the Federal Reserve easing monetary policy anytime soon.

Wall Street had regained some ground yesterday due to a rally in Nvidia and other tech stocks.

Investors will be keen to see if Nvidia’s results and forecast can match heightened market expectations following a blockbuster report last quarter that fuelled a blistering rally in tech stocks amid the frenzy around artificial intelligence.

"If they really came out and said the demand for AI is less than expected, the entire market is going to be impacted,” said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth in Fairfield.

Shares of Nvidia hit an all-time high of US$481.87 (RM2,239) soon after markets opened but were last down 1.5 per cent.

Other big technology and growth stocks such as Microsoft, Alphabet and Tesla rose between 0.7 per cent and 2.7 per cent.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will speak at a meeting in Jackson Hole on Friday, which will be closely monitored by investors for more clues on the direction for US interest rates.

Traders’ bets of a pause in rate hikes next month stand at 84.5 per cent, while odds of a 25 basis point rate hike in November have risen to nearly 39 per cent from about 35.8 per cent a week ago, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool.

At 9.59am ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 21.71 points, or 0.06 per cent, at 34,441.98, the S&P 500 was up 2.95 points, or 0.07 per cent, at 4,402.72, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 19.74 points, or 0.15 per cent, at 13,517.33.

Keeping the Dow under pressure, sports retailer Nike fell 0.5 per cent after a downbeat profit forecast from Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Among other stocks, Lowe’s Cos rose 3.1 per cent after the home improvement retailer topped quarterly profit estimates.

Activision Blizzard gained 1.0 per cent after Microsoft offered to sell the "Call of Duty” maker’s non-European streaming rights to Ubisoft Entertainment to get the deal past British regulators.

US regional lenders KeyCorp and Comerica slipped 1.9 per cent and 1.3 per cent, respectively, following an S&P downgrade.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.17-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and for a 1.02-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded one new 52-week highs and 8 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 23 new highs and 76 new lows. — Reuters