By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- U.S. stock markets opened mixed on Tuesday after a surprise move by the Bank of Japan to let market interest rates rise added to the tightening of global financial conditions.
By 10:00 ET (15:00 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average had eked out a gain of 10 points or less than 0.1%, while the S&P 500 was up by a similar amount, and the Nasdaq Composite edged into negative territory.
The moves were in modest volumes, as activity tailed off ahead of the holiday season.
Overnight, the Bank of Japan had said it would allow 10-year government bond yields to rise to as much as 0.5%, from a previous target of 0.25%. The news supported the yen, forcing the unwinding of 'carry trades' that borrow cheap yen to invest in higher-yielding assets such as U.S. Treasuries. Higher bond yields, in turn, weighed on sentiment toward equities.