By Gregor Stuart Hunter SINGAPORE, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Asian stocks tumbled in early trading on Monday as investors reined in risk-taking at the start of a week sprinkled with key central bank
Global Stock Index Falls Amid US Data and Central Bank Decisions
By Sinéad Carew and Lawrence White
NEW YORK/ LONDON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - MSCI's global equities gauge turned slightly lower while U.S. Treasury yields edged down on Monday as investors were shy about taking on riskier bets as they waited for the week's busy schedule of U.S. economic data releases including the jobs report and retail sales as well as the latest inflation reading.
U.S. stocks were making little progress in either direction after opening slightly higher following a slump on Friday amid concerns about inflation and a bubble in artificial intelligence shares.
After digesting last week's update from the Federal Reserve, investors were turning their attention to economic data that was delayed by the U.S. government shutdown, including the jobs report for November and the monthly consumer price index (CPI) inflation report.
With traders already pricing in more rate cuts this year compared with Fed estimates for just one, R. Burns McKinney, portfolio manager at NFJ Investment Group said that investors are hoping for a jobs report that is weak enough to support more easing.
"This is the kind of market where investors are kind of hoping for softness. We're right back to where bad news is good news. You just don't want the bad news to be terribly bad. You want mildly bad news," said McKinney.
New York Fed President John Williams said on Monday the U.S. central bank's interest rate cut last week leaves it in a good position to deal with what lies ahead, adding that he sees inflation moderating amid cooling in the job market.
Boston Fed President Susan Collins said she supported last week's rate cut due to a changing inflation outlook but that she "would want greater clarity about the inflation picture before adjusting policy further."
On Wall Street at 02:33 p.m., the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 75.49 points, or 0.16%, to 48,382.06, the S&P 500 fell 10.56 points, or 0.15%, to 6,816.89 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 107.03 points, or 0.47%, to 23,088.14.
"The two main drivers of the market all year long has been the easing interest rate cycle and AI momentum and over the past week those two are starting to come into a little bit of doubt," said Brian Mulberry, senior client portfolio manager, Zacks Investment Management.
He added with the year-end drawing closer "you have a lot of people rebalancing their portfolio, taking risk off the table going into 2026, expecting more volatility. They're probably right."
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe fell 1.39 points, or 0.14%, to 1,007.49.
Earlier, the pan-European STOXX 600 index closed up 0.74% as investors in Europe returned to risk assets.
In U.S. Treasuries, yields dipped while investors waited for the last major economic releases for 2025.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 1.4 basis points to 4.182%, from 4.196% late on Friday while the 30-year bond yield fell 0.5 basis points to 4.8527%.
The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 2.3 basis points to 3.508%, from 3.531% late on Friday.
CENTRAL BANK DECISIONS LOOM
In currencies, the U.S. dollar pared earlier losses against the yen and the euro and turned positive against the Swiss franc as traders prepared for central bank decisions and U.S. economic data.
Among the policy decisions due this week, the Bank of Japan is expected to hike rates by 25 basis points to 0.75%, while the Bank of England may make an equal-sized cut to 3.75%. The European Central Bank is expected to keep interest rates on hold, alongside Sweden's Riksbank and Norway's Norges Bank.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.03% to 98.38, with the euro down 0.01% at $1.1739.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 0.3% to 155.35.
While the greenback had fallen earlier against the Swiss franc, in late afternoon trading it had strengthened 0.11% to 0.797.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin fell 2.51% to $86,248.60.
In energy markets, oil prices fell as investors balanced supply disruptions linked to escalating U.S.-Venezuelan tensions with oversupply concerns and the impact of a potential Russia-Ukraine peace deal.
U.S. crude settled down 1.08%, or 62 cents at $56.82 a barrel and Brent fell to $60.56 per barrel, down 0.92%, or 56 cents on the day.
In precious metals, spot gold rose to hover near a seven-week peak as it was bolstered by a softer dollar, while silver held below a record high hit.
Spot gold rose 0.2% to $4,310.79 an ounce. U.S. gold futures rose 0.13% to $4,305.70 an ounce.
(Reporting by Sinéad Carew, Lawrence White, Gregor Stuart Hunter; Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Sam Holmes, Louise Heavens, Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski)
