The 10-year Treasury yield touched 3.0 percent on Thursday for the first time since September. And while that didn't prove particularly hazardous to the stock market, Jeff Kilburg of KKM Financial says equities will be watching yields very carefully from here on out.
"It's all about the manner we move," Kilburg said on Thursday's episode of "Futures Now." "Three percent to 3.25, that's not a big deal. But if we get there in a week or two weeks, that ferocious manner will really make people rethink their equity portfolio and their equity allocations."
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The real test will come when the 10-year yield hits the next round number.
"If we see 4 percent on the 10-year yield in the first quarter of 2014, crawl into that bomb shelter, because that will crush every market out there," Kilburg said.
Earlier in the show, Dennis Gartman had predicted that 4 percent was around the corner.
"We're probably going to see 4 percent yield on the 10 year before the end of 2014, if not higher," said the founder of The Gartman Letter.
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Unlike Kilburg, though, he is not overly worried about higher yields' effect on equities.
"I think [a 4 percent yield] will simply be exemplary of strong economic growth, and nothing more than that," said Gartman, who remains bullish on stocks.
—By CNBC's Alex Rosenberg. Follow him on Twitter: @C NBCAlex.
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