The Dow Jones Industrial Average tends to be viewed as a more “value-oriented” barometer benchmark US stock index due to its higher weightage of value-related sectors, such as Financials, over the Nasdaq 100; the Financials sector has a weightage of 27% in the DJIA.
One of the key drivers that allows the DJIA to stage a bullish breakout on 22 August 2025, above its former all-time high of 45,074 printed on 4 December 2024, is a macro factor (undiversifiable risk), the bullish steepening of the US Treasury yield curve (10-year minus 2-year), which, in turn, also reinforced the bullish breakout of the ratio chart of the S&P 500 Enhanced Value ETF (35% weightage in Financials)/S&P 500 ETF (see Fig. 2).
A bullish steepening of the US Treasury yield curve indicates short-term interest rates are falling at a faster pace than long-term interest rates due to an accommodating monetary policy environment undertaken by the Fed.
Hence, a US Treasury bull steepening environment tends to benefit the US Financials, especially in wholesale banking, as net interest margins expand, in turn, triggering a positive feedback loop back into the Dow Jones Industrial Average (heavily weighting in the Financials sector).
The recent pull-back in the DJIA since last Friday, 12 September, has moved in line with the flattening of the US Treasury yield curve (10-year minus 2-year). Interestingly, the flattening process of the US Treasury yield has stalled at a major ascending support, and a re-steepening motion seems to be in progress as it staged a bounce from 0.48% on 11 September 2025 to 0.52% on Tuesday, 16 September 2025.
The further re-steepening of the US Treasury yield curve will likely hinge on today’s release of the Fed’s latest economic projections and Chair Powell’s press conference, both of which will shape market expectations for monetary policy.
Should the Fed strike a dovish tone that prompts markets to price in more than the three rate cuts currently anticipated for 2026 (latest CME FedWatch tool data), the yield curve may resume its bull-steepening trend, in turn supporting the next bullish impulsive move in the DJIA.
Let’s now focus on the short-term (1 to 3 days) trajectory and key technical levels to watch on the US Wall Street 30 CFD Index
