U.S. stocks fall, dollar pares losses, oil prices jump ahead of OPEC meeting
Crude futures rallied in choppy trading on Monday ahead of an OPEC meeting later in the week that could reap production cuts, while the U.S. dollar recovered from earlier losses but was still slightly lower.
The dollar index .DXY slipped 0.15 percent after having fallen as much as 0.8 percent. The U.S. currency sank as much as 1.6 percent against the yen, going as low as 111.32 yen JPY= before recovering to 112.24.
Most analysts said the dip in the dollar since Friday was simply a corrective pullback with the greenback still on track for its strongest two-month gain since early 2015.
“It looks much more like a correction than anything else – a Monday morning clearing of the decks before the end of the month,” said Societe Generale macro strategist Kit Juckes in London.
The euro was little changed versus the greenback after having gained nearly 1 percent to $1.0684 as it got a lift from the election of Francois Fillon as the center-right candidate in next year’s French presidential election. It was last at $1.0593 EUR=.
Fillon, a former French prime minister, is favorite to become president, with a flash opinion poll suggesting he would easily beat far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen in a second round run-off. Markets worry that Le Pen, who has promised a referendum on membership of the European Union if she wins, would threaten the future of the currency bloc.
On Wall Street, consumer and financial stocks weighed on the S&P 500 after rallying last week.
“Those sectors are really due for some moderation in performance and it is very likely over the next week to two weeks we will see them actually underperform the market,” said Peter Kenny, senior market strategist at Global Markets Advisory Group, in New York.
“That should not be a cause for concern, that is probably very healthy and should lead to a more sustainable move higher in the near-term heading into 2017.”
