Mixed comments from 2 Federal Reserve (Fed) officials kept global equities closed lower as investors tried to digest the prospect of interest rate hikes in the United States (US).
Fed Governor Christopher Waller on Sunday issued a hawkish statement with the central bank expected not to plan to 'slow down' the tightening policy based on 'one piece of good news' alone.
The good news of course refers to US inflation data which shrank last week, the main catalyst for the equity surge and pushed the greenback down.
However, Fed Vice Chairman Lael Brainard's follow-up comments on Monday were dovish with the Fed official saying the central bank is predicted to slow rate hikes soon but conditionally.
North Star Investment Management Corp's head of investment, Eric Kuby, commented that these mixed inputs upset investors' confidence a little but tend to be more negative ahead of the release of the US producer price index data.
As a result, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.63% to 33,536.7 while the S&P 500 lost 0.89% to 3,957.25 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.12% to 11,196.22.
The STOXX 600 index closed 0.14% higher and the MSCI gauge of global shares lost 0.59%.
The situation in Asia saw shares in Japan decline following the economic contraction of the 'rising sun' country in the 3rd quarter including Australia's S&P/ASX 200 while South Korea's Kospi rose 0.15%.
In the meantime, US Treasury yield showed a slight positive movement when the 10-year note rose 4.2 points to 3.871% from 3.829% and the 2-year yield jumped 8 points to 4.406% from 4.326%.
