By Sinéad Carew and Iain Withers
NEW YORK/LONDON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - MSCI's global equities gauge was lower on Monday as weakness in technology stocks offset support from a dip in U.S. Treasury yields and falling oil prices.
Investors were waiting for details of threatened U.S. sanctions on Iran with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent due to hold a press conference later on Monday to outline the details.
Treasury yields fell following a report that the Treasury Department may tap its cash account to finance
increased debt buybacks. In currencies, the Canadian dollar dipped due to a looming U.S. trade war.
While most of the S&P 500's industry sectors were gaining ground, heavyweight technology led losses in a handful of declining sectors.
"Today it's a mixed bag. Technology is being dragged down by the overnight news from two key companies, but the rest of the market is reacting positively to lower oil prices and lower bond yields," said Gene Goldman, chief investment officer at Cetera, El Segundo, CA.
In particular Goldman pointed to Alibaba's launch of a $10.2 billion share sale at a steep discount to fund its AI ambitions. And South Korean shares fell after Samsung Electronics announced a $79 billion shareholder-return plan, which was a record but still smaller than the windfall its investors had expected.
Technology investors were already on edge ahead of Nvidia's quarterly financial report on Wednesday with worries about how hard it will be for the leading AI chipmaker to meet sky-high expectations.
On Monday at 11:14 a.m. ET (1514 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 89.04 points, or 0.17%, to 53,361.60, the S&P 500 fell 28.66 points, or 0.37%, to 7,645.71 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 186.77 points, or 0.71%, to 25,993.69.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe fell 5.02 points, or 0.44%, to 1,144.79 while the pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.01%. Earlier South Korea's KOSPI index finished down more than 3%.
FROM JACKSON HOLE TO TRADE WARS
Also coming up this week is Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh's first speech at an annual conference in Jackson Hole. The appearance has taken on added weight as traders and analysts look for guidance about the recent jump in bond yields and for reassurance of his independence from the Trump administration.
While traders are pricing in a roughly 60% probability that the Fed will hold rates steady at its September meeting, the expectation is for at least one hike by December, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.
In government bonds, the yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 3.99 basis points to 4.698%, from 4.738% late on Friday, while the 30-year bond yield fell 4.94 basis points to 5.2266%.
The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 0.46 basis point to 4.229%.
U.S.-CANADIAN TRADE WAR
Currency markets were impacted by U.S.-Canada trade tensions. President Donald Trump said in a social media post on Monday, after trade talks with Canada collapsed over the weekend, that tariffs on all cars and trucks, automotive parts and steel will be increased to 50% starting on January 1, 2027.
The Canadian dollar weakened 0.48% versus the greenback to C$1.383 per dollar while Prime Minister Mark Carney said his country would respond to U.S. tariffs with levies of its own.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.15% to 98.96, with the euro down 0.1% at $1.1667.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.13% to 159.13.
In energy markets, U.S. crude fell 2.37% to $85.00 a barrel and Brent fell to $92.65 per barrel, down 1.83% on the day.
In precious metals, gold prices pushed to their highest levels in more than three months as technical buyers piled into a rally driven by the U.S. Treasury's recent buyback announcement and a weaker dollar ahead of this week's inflation data and the Jackson Hole meeting.
Spot gold rose 1.53% to $4,673.16 an ounce. U.S. gold futures rose 1.01% to $4,670.90 an ounce.
(Reporting by Sinéad Carew, Iain Withers and Wayne Cole. Editing by Alex Richardson, Hugh Lawson and Mark Potter)
