london jan 5 reuters  the optimism with which markets started the year showed signs of waning on wednesday with european stock indexes mixed following a weaker asian session that saw higher us treasury yields hurt technology stocks with investors expecting the federal reserve to begin hiking interest rates as early as march us treasury yields jumped on monday and tuesday but on wednesday they pulled back slightly with the us 10year yield at 16473 at 0847 gmt compared to the previous sessions peak of 1686 which was the highest since late november read more the shift in market focus back to prospects for us rate hikes has revived a rotation out of growthsensitive stocks such as tech firms into ones that offer income such as financials and industrials after the techheavy nasdaq fell 13 in wall street on tuesday asian shares fell overnight read more in hong kong tech shares were also hit by chinas fines on alibaba 9988hk tencent 0700hk and bilibili 9626hk european shares were mixed with the stoxx 600 down 01 retreating from the alltime high hit in the previous session stoxx the ftse 100 was flat germanys dax was up 02 gdaxi and frances cac 40 was little changed fchi the msci world equity index miwd00000pus which tracks shares in 50 countries was down 01 there are wobbles in the global equity markets on the back of higher backend us treasury yields and concerns about the chinese tech sector sebastien galy senior macro strategist at nordea asset management said in a client note describing the hit to the tech sector as a mechanical adjustment of those concerns we should see the fear ebb to leave us with the shape of a reality that is less clear cut than post covid19 shock the real story though as we start the new year is that the global economy is operating above potential as supply chains remain stretched galy said pmi data showed french services sector growth in december came in slightly below an initial estimate while activity in spains services sector grew in december at the slowest pace since april read more restrictions to contain the coronavirus also dampened activity in germanys services sector in december read more investors remain generally calm about the economic impact of the omicron variant of covid19 with analysts noting studies suggesting the risk of hospitalisation is lower read more the world health organization said that evidence suggested omicron is causing milder symptoms than previous variants read more but as infections soar the number of hospitalised covid19 patients in the united states has risen nearly 50 in the past week read more hong kongs leader carrie lam announced new restrictions including a twoweek ban on flights from countries including britain and the united states read more with inflation having surged in the past six months investors will be looking at the minutes from the feds december meeting released at 1900 gmt for signs of policymakers willingness to tighten monetary policy european government bond yields were mostly around one basis point higher on the day with germanys 10year yield having hit a twomonth high at 0115  the us dollar was down around 01 on the day having edged down below recent twoweek highs but expectations of fed hawkishness still kept the yen pinned near a fiveyear low against the dollar read more the euro was up 02  in cryptocurrencies bitcoin was up 13 at 4641422  still significantly below its most recent alltime high of 69000 reached in november  oil prices slipped slightly with brent crude futures down 03 and us west texas intermediate crude down 03  read more