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US stocks suffered their worst falls in more than six years on Monday in a sell-off sparked by concerns of higher interest rates.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average index tumbled 1,175 points, or 4.6% to close down at 24,345.75.

The White House moved to reassure investors saying it was focused on "long-term economic fundamentals, which remain exceptionally strong".

Signs of improvement in the economy had driven US markets to record highs.

Ever since he was elected in November 2016 President Donald Trump has tweeted a number of times about the increase in US stock markets, using the gains since he took office to illustrate market improvement.

"Economic news from the US has been stronger than anticipated," said David Kuo, chief executive of financial services advisory Motley Fool.

"So, perversely, the market correction has been caused by positive economic news".

Monday's decline is the largest decline in percentage terms for the Dow since August 2011, when markets dropped in the aftermath of "Black Monday" - the day Standard & Poor's downgraded its credit rating of the US.

What has the reaction been?

The drop on the Dow was closely followed by the wider S&P 500 stock index, down 4.1% and the technology-heavy Nasdaq, which lost 3.7%.

In London, the FTSE 100 index of leading companies also fell to close down 1.46% or 108 points lower.

In Tuesday's early Asian trade, stocks were following Wall Street's lead. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 sank 4.8% before recovering slightly, while Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was down 2.7%. In South Korea, the Kospi lost 2.3%.

Asian markets are following Wall Street's lead - but why?

Why is this happening?

Investors are reacting to changes in the outlook for the American and global economy, and what that might mean for the cost of borrowing.

The stock market sell-off accelerated on Friday when the US Labour Department released employment numbers which showed stronger growth in wages than was anticipated.

CMC Markets analyst Michael McCarthy said the wage numbers "blew lower interest rates out of the water".

"The share selling....reflects a higher than previously anticipated interest rate environment," Mr McCarthy said.

In response to that, investors moved to sell out of stocks and put money into assets like bonds which benefit from higher interest rates.

"This isn't a collapse of the economy. This isn't a concern that markets aren't going to do well," said Erin Gibbs, portfolio manager for S&P Global Market Intelligence.

"This is concern that the economy is actually doing much better than expected and so we need to re-evaluate," she said.

What has driven the Dow's surge?

Stronger global growth has prompted central banks in Europe, Canada and elsewhere to ease away from policies put in place to stimulate the economy after the financial crisis.

What impact will this have?

Analysts say investors should be prepared for choppier stock markets in the months ahead.

But the Dow closed Monday having shed about a third of its gains since Mr Trump took office in January 2017.

It marks a dramatic turnaround from January, when it raced past the 25,000 and 26,000 point milestones in less than a month.

Joel Prakken, chief US economist for IHS Markit, predicts share price gains will be limited over the next two years.

But he added that markets would need to deteriorate more significantly for him to start to worry about the broader economy.

"The difference between this year and last year is we're going to see more periods of volatility like this as the market reacts to higher inflation," he said.

"We're just not used to it because it's been so long since we've had a significant correction."

What does it mean for investors?

Investors have been bracing for a downturn after months of seemingly unstoppable gains.

Amid the market plunge on Monday, websites for several large money management companies suffered slowdowns or crashes.

Wall Street firms also said they have been fielding calls from people worried about their investments.

Analysis: By Anthony Zurcher, BBC North America reporter

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Jerome Powell was sworn in as the new chairman of the US Federal Reserve on Monday

Boasting about stock market gains is a dangerous game that most presidents avoid playing. Barack Obama did it occasionally, but only after the US economy had climbed significantly from the wreckage of the 2008 collapse.

After warning of a market bubble during the campaign, however, Donald Trump became the Dow Jones's biggest cheerleader- in tweets, at rallies and even during last week's State of the Union address. That set up the jarring visual of the president boasting about the benefits of his tax cuts in a speech as the markets headed south.

US cable news channels, which had been airing the president live, cut into their coverage to report on the record-setting day. It was a highly visible hiccup in the recent US economic success story that will be hard for most Americans to miss.

The president will make the case that the fundamentals in the economy are still strong. Wages are up and unemployment is down - possibly contributing to stock drop. If growth continues, this could be chalked up as yet another rhetorical mis-step by a non-politician.

If it's the beginning of a larger correction in an election year, however, the president's words could come back to haunt him.

You might also be interested in: </s> U.S. stocks opened sharply lower Tuesday on the heels of selloffs earlier in the day in Asia and Europe and one day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed the most points in one day in its more than 120-year history.

The Dow fell 530 points at the market open and the more broad-based Standard & Poors 500 Index (S&P 500) tumbled 1.3 percent. The technology heavy Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.1 percent.

Earlier Tuesday, Asia's benchmark stock indexes collapsed, as Monday's massive selloffs on Wall Street rolled across the globe.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index lost as much seven percent of its value at one point during the trading session, before closing at 21,610 points, a loss of nearly five percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index followed suit, dropping just over five percent in its worst trading day since August 2015.

The benchmark indexes in Australia and South Korea also suffered serious losses.

In early Europe trading London's FTSE 100 was down 3.5 percent at 7,081 points.

Asian markets were caught in the ripple effect of Monday's 1,175-point loss on the Dow, marking the biggest point decline in history. The S&P 500 also had a bad day, losing just over four percent to finish at 2,648 points.

The stock market has now lost about a trillion dollars in value since Friday, when the Dow lost 666 points. That drop followed a solid jobs report that showed the U.S. economy adding 200 thousand jobs and wages rising at the fastest pace in a decade. The tighter labor market and rising wages prompted investor fears of higher inflation and the possibility that the U.S. Federal Reserve would raise interest rates faster and higher than they have in recent years.

Analysts who spoke with VOA had been expecting a stock market "correction," a decline of at least 10 percent from the most recent record highs, as a result of the record run-up in stock prices this year. </s> By Marketwatch and Associated Press

Asian markets sink after U.S. stocks drop more than 2%

Japanese stocks plunged Tuesday and other Asian markets declined following heavy Wall Street losses triggered by President Donald Trump's attack on the U.S. central bank.

The Nikkei 225 fell by an unusually wide margin of 5%, hitting its lowest point since May 2017 with a close at 19,155.74. The index is now down just over 21% from highs reached in early October, which meets a widely accepted definition of a bear market. Loses were widespread, with all 33 Tokyo Stock Exchange subsectors posting losses. Fuji Electric dropped over 7%, SoftBank Group was off 7.6%, Fast Retailing fell over 4% and Toyota sank over 5%.

China's Shanghai Composite Index pared losses to close down 0.9%, with the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite faring the same. Taiwan's benchmark index declined more than 1%.

Markets in Hong Kong, Australia and South Korea were closed for Christmas.

"The sell-off is triggered almost entirely by developments in the U.S. markets, rather than by negative factors unique to the domestic market," Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at Monex Securities in Tokyo, told CNBC (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/25/asia-markets-japans-nikkei-hits-20-month-low.html).

Wall Street indexes fell more than 2% on Monday after Trump said on Twitter the Federal Reserve was the U.S. economy's "only problem." Efforts by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to calm investor fears only seemed to make matters worse.

U.S. stocks are track for their worst December since 1931 during the Great Depression.

The market has been roiled by concerns about a slowing global economy, the trade dispute with China and another interest rate increase by the Fed.

Trump's Monday morning tweet heightened fears about the economy being destabilized by a president who wants control over the Fed. Its board members are nominated by the president, but they make decisions independently of the White House. The board's chairman, Jerome Powell, was nominated by Trump last year.

"The only problem our economy has is the Fed," the president said on Twitter. "They don't have a feel for the Market, they don't understand necessary Trade Wars or Strong Dollars or even Democrat Shutdowns over Borders. The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can't score because he has no touch -- he can't putt!"

The S&P 500 index slid 2.7% to 2,351.10. The benchmark index is now down 19.8% from its peak on Sept. 20, close to the 20% drop that would officially mean the end of the longest bull market for stocks in modern history -- a run of nearly 10 years.

On Sunday, Mnuchin made a round of calls to the heads of the six largest U.S. banks, but the move only raised new concerns about the economy.

Most economists expect U.S. economic growth to slow in 2019, not slide into a full-blown recession. But the president has voiced his anger over the Fed's decision to raise its key short-term rate four times in 2018. That is intended to prevent the economy from overheating. </s> Asian shares tumbled on Monday after a sharply lower finish for major U.S. indexes on Friday amid concerns central banks, particularly the Fed, will become less accomodative.

Down Under, the ASX 200 closed down 2.24 percent, or 119,582 points, at 5,219.1, weighed heavily by the energy sector, which was down 3 percent, the materials subindex, which shed 3.23 percent, and the financials sector, which was lower by 2.01 percent.

The Japanese benchmark index ended lower by 1.73 percent, or 292.84 points, at 16,672.92; South Korea's Kospi finished down 2.28 percent, or 46.39 points, at 1,991.48 from levels above 2,040 just last week.

In company news, Samsung weighed on the Kospi, with its shares dropping 6.98 percent, extending losses from the previous session after the South Korean firm and several airlines urged all customers to stop using the Galaxy Note 7 smartphones amid concerns over fire-prone batteries.



Mainland China markets slumped: The composite closed down 1.88 percent, or 57.965 points, at 3,020.937 and the Shenzhen composite shed 2.659 percent, or 57.965 points, to 1,977.057. In Hong Kong, the index slid 2.85 percent as of 3:15 pm HK/SIN time.

"Traders have been quick to price in worst case scenario as interest rate rise jitters start taking hold and have resulted in some fairly assertive moves in bond, equity, and forex asset classes," said Stephen Innes, senior trader at OANDA, in a Monday note.



The rising risk sentiment was because "one, the ECB did not extend QE, provoking a sell-off in bond markets, which fed into the medium to long-end U.S. bond curve. Two, traders have convinced themselves the Fed are marching out Leal Brainard, a mega-dove, to bang the Fed's September rate hike drum," he added.

Fed Governor Lael Brainard was scheduled for a surprise speech at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs later on Monday.

Other recent Fed speakers have also sounded more hawkish notes.

On Friday, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren had said that the U.S. economy has proven to be more resilient to exogenous risks and that "gradual tightening is likely to be appropriate."

Rosengren's speech was cited by traders as a catalyst for the market volatility, said Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG, in his morning note.. </s> A woman walks past a bank electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index outside a Hong Kong local bank Monday, Aug. 13, 2018. Asian stock prices sank Monday as Turkey’s financial turmoil fueled fears contagion might spread to other emerging markets. less

A woman walks past a bank electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index outside a Hong Kong local bank Monday, Aug. 13, 2018. Asian stock prices sank Monday as Turkey’s financial turmoil fueled fears ... more

A woman walks past a bank electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index outside a Hong Kong local bank Monday, Aug. 13, 2018. Asian stock prices sank Monday as Turkey’s financial turmoil fueled fears contagion might spread to other emerging markets. less

A woman walks past a bank electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index outside a Hong Kong local bank Monday, Aug. 13, 2018. Asian stock prices sank Monday as Turkey’s financial turmoil fueled fears ... more

BEIJING (AP) — Asian stock prices sank Monday as Turkey's financial turmoil fueled fears contagion might spread to other emerging markets.

KEEPING SCORE: The Shanghai Composite Index lost 1.7 percent to 2,746.90 and Tokyo's Nikkei 225 retreated 1.9 percent to 21,885.45. Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 1.8 percent to 27,850.55 and Seoul's Kospi retreated 1.6 percent to 2,249.65. Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 declined 0.5 percent to 6,246.80. Benchmarks in New Zealand, Singapore, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur also fell.

WALL STREET: Stock prices slid as investors responded to Turkey jitters by settling equities and buying government bonds. The dollar strengthened while major exporters including technology, basic materials and industrial companies sank. The Standard & Poor's 500 index slide 0.7 percent to 2,833.28, ending a five-week winning streak. The Nasdaq composite broke an eight-day rising trend and sank 0.7 percent to 7,839.11.

TURKISH TURMOIL: Investors are uneasy over whether Turkey's government can cope with a plunging currency, a diplomatic spat with Washington and other problems. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accumulated more and more control over Turkey's financial system and central bank. U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he will authorize higher tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum. That came after Turkey put an American pastor on trial on spying charges. Erdogan promised Sunday his government will take unspecified "necessary actions" to calm markets.

ANALYST'S TAKE: "Turkey's financial crisis has taken center stage, displacing trade wars as the immediate concern," said Eugene Leow of DBS Group in a report. Worries are building that "this may lead to contagion" across emerging markets, said Leow. "We fail to see how the crisis can be resolved without external support," but an International Monetary Fund support package will be difficult "given Turkey's current political situation."

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude fell 5 cents to $67.58 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract closed at $67.63 on Friday. Brent crude lost 18 cents to $72.65 in London. It closed at $72.83 the previous session.

CURRENCIES: The dollar declined to 110.24 yen from Friday's 110.93. The euro fell to $1.1385 from $1.1411. </s> Japanese stocks plunged Tuesday and other Asian markets declined following heavy Wall Street losses triggered by President Donald Trump’s attack on the U.S. central bank.

The Nikkei 225 NIK, -5.01% fell by an unusually wide margin of about 5%, hitting its lowest point since May 2017. Loses were widespread, with all 33 Tokyo Stock Exchange subsectors posting losses. Fuji Electric 6504, -7.55% was down 7%, SoftBank Group 9984, -7.58% was off 7%, Fast Retailing 9983, -4.13% fell 4.5% and Toyota 7203, -5.25% sank 5%.

China’s Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP, -0.87% lost 2.4% while the smaller-cap Shenzhen Composite 399106, -0.85% fell 2.8%. Taiwan’s benchmark index Y9999, -1.17% also declined more than 1%.

Markets in Hong Kong, Australia and South Korea were closed for Christmas.

“The sell-off is triggered almost entirely by developments in the U.S. markets, rather than by negative factors unique to the domestic market,” Takashi Hiroki, chief strategist at Monex Securities in Tokyo, told CNBC.

Wall Street indexes fell more than 2% on Monday after Trump said on Twitter the Federal Reserve was the U.S. economy’s “only problem.” Efforts by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to calm investor fears only seemed to make matters worse.

U.S. stocks are track for their worst December since 1931 during the Great Depression.

Read: Which stock and bond markets close, and when, for Christmas and New Year’s holidays

The market has been roiled by concerns about a slowing global economy, the trade dispute with China and another interest rate increase by the Fed.

Trump’s Monday morning tweet heightened fears about the economy being destabilized by a president who wants control over the Fed. Its board members are nominated by the president, but they make decisions independently of the White House. The board’s chairman, Jerome Powell, was nominated by Trump last year.

“The only problem our economy has is the Fed,” the president said on Twitter. “They don’t have a feel for the Market, they don’t understand necessary Trade Wars or Strong Dollars or even Democrat Shutdowns over Borders. The Fed is like a powerful golfer who can’t score because he has no touch — he can’t putt!”

The S&P 500 index SPX, -2.71% slid 2.7% to 2,351.10. The benchmark index is now down 19.8% from its peak on Sept. 20, close to the 20% drop that would officially mean the end of the longest bull market for stocks in modern history — a run of nearly 10 years.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -2.91% sank 2.9% to 21,792.20. The Nasdaq skidded 2.2% to 6,192.92.

On Sunday, Mnuchin made a round of calls to the heads of the six largest U.S. banks, but the move only raised new concerns about the economy.

Most economists expect U.S. economic growth to slow in 2019, not slide into a full-blown recession. But the president has voiced his anger over the Fed’s decision to raise its key short-term rate four times in 2018. That is intended to prevent the economy from overheating.

Providing critical information for the U.S. trading day. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Need to Know newsletter. Sign up here. </s> (AP Photo/Vincent Yu). A man walks past a bank electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index outside a Hong Kong local bank Monday, Aug. 13, 2018. Asian stock prices sank Monday as Turkey’s financial turmoil fueled fears contagion might spread to ...

(AP Photo/Vincent Yu). A woman walks past a bank electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index outside a Hong Kong local bank Monday, Aug. 13, 2018. Asian stock prices sank Monday as Turkey’s financial turmoil fueled fears contagion might spread t...

(AP Photo/Vincent Yu). A woman walks past a bank electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index outside a Hong Kong local bank Monday, Aug. 13, 2018. Asian stock prices sank Monday as Turkey’s financial turmoil fueled fears contagion might spread t...

BEIJING (AP) - Asian stock prices sank Monday as Turkey's financial turmoil fueled fears of contagion in other emerging markets.

KEEPING SCORE: The Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.6 percent to 2,750.40 and Tokyo's Nikkei 225 tumbled 2.0 percent to 21,857.43. Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.6 percent to 27,907.18 and Seoul's Kospi retreated 1.5 percent to 2,248.45. Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 shed 0.4 percent to 6,252.20 and India's Sensex was down 0.3 percent at 33,729.73. Benchmarks in New Zealand, Taiwan and Southeast Asia also declined.

WALL STREET: Investors responded to Turkey jitters by selling equities and buying government bonds. The dollar strengthened as traders dumped Turkish lira. Major exporters including technology, basic materials and industrial companies sank. The Standard & Poor's 500 index slid 0.7 percent to 2,833.28, ending a five-week winning streak. The Nasdaq composite broke an eight-day rising trend and sank 0.7 percent to 7,839.11.

TURKISH TURMOIL: Investors question whether President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government can cope with a plunging currency, a diplomatic spat with Washington and other problems. Erdogan has accumulated more and more control over Turkey's financial system and central bank. U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he will authorize higher tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum. That came after Turkey put an American pastor on trial on spying charges. Erdogan promised Sunday his government will take unspecified "necessary actions" to calm markets.

ANALYST'S TAKE: "Turkey's financial crisis has taken center stage, displacing trade wars as the immediate concern," said Eugene Leow of DBS Group in a report. Worries are building that "this may lead to contagion" across emerging markets, said Leow. "We fail to see how the crisis can be resolved without external support," but an International Monetary Fund support package will be difficult "given Turkey's current political situation."

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude fell 24 cents to $67.39 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract closed at $67.63 on Friday. Brent crude lost 28 cents to $72.53 in London. It closed at $72.83 the previous session.

CURRENCIES: The dollar declined to 110.22 yen from Friday's 110.93. The euro fell to $1.1373 from $1.1411.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> U.S. stocks pare losses, oil up as markets reassess central banks

NEW YORK, Sept 12 (Reuters) - U.S stock prices were slightly higher at midsession Monday after a Federal Reserve policymaker expressed caution about the need to raise U.S. interest rates, though European and Asian equities finished lower after the biggest fall on Wall Street since June on Friday.

Federal Reserve officials have raised the chances of another interest rate rise this year in the past few weeks and the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan have also refrained from further monetary policy easing recently, culminating in Friday's revaluation of stocks after U.S corporate earnings fell for the fifth straight quarter.

Federal Reserve governor Lael Brainerd is also due to make a speech in Chicago later Monday, the last policy maker to speak before next week's Fed policy meeting.

At 11:45 a.m. ET (1545 GMT), the Dow Jones industrial average was up 72.38 points, or 0.4 percent, to 18,157.83; the S&P 500 had gained 11.92 points, or 0.56 percent, to 2,139.73 and the Nasdaq Composite had added 43.52 points, or 0.85 percent, to 5,169.43.

A gauge of equities across major markets fell 0.3 percent after losing 1.0 percent earlier. European stocks were down 1.0 percent, cutting an earlier loss in half.

U.S. stocks began to recover Monday morning after Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank president Dennis Lockhart said current economic conditions warrant a "serious discussion" of whether to raise interest rates at next week's Fed meeting, also telling reporters there was no "urgency" to act.

"Lockhart helped assuage fears that a rate hike in September was imminent," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial in Newark, New Jersey.

The U.S. dollar slipped against the Japanese yen on Monday as uncertainty surrounding the potential Federal Reserve rate hike this month fueled a selloff in riskier currencies, while speculation less monetary policy easing from the Bank of Japan also helped the yen.

The greenback was last down 0.66 percent against the yen at 102 yen and was little changed against the euro at $1.123.

The benchmark U.S. Treasury yield turned higher midsession Monday and hit a session high of 1.697 percent, the highest since late June.

In commodities markets, crude oil prices turned positive with traders citing a weaker U.S. dollar.

Brent crude futures were up 1.1 percent at $48.58 a barrel, having recovered from a session low of $46.90, while U.S. crude rose from an intraday low of $44.72 to trade at $46.47, up 1.2 percent.

The biggest fall in U.S. crude oil inventories since 1999 last week, and hopes for a deal between Saudi Arabia and Russia on stabilizing crude output at this months OPEC meeting, have helped to support oil prices in the past week

Adding to Monday's jittery markets mood, U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton fell ill at a Sept. 11 memorial ceremony and had been diagnosed with pneumonia.

Markets have generally assumed Clinton would win the presidency and have not truly considered the implications, both economic and for national security, should her rival Donald Trump prevail. </s> TOKYO/HONG KONG, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Asian stocks fell to fresh six-week lows on Wednesday and the greenback stood strong against a broad swathe of currencies including the Japanese yen as concerns grew about the fading impact of the world's major central banks to stimulate growth.

Losses in stock markets across Asia deepened as rising bond yields and soaring volatility forced investors to unwind positions.

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid 0.2 percent, extending its decline since late last week to 4.2 percent.

Within the region, Japan's Nikkei led losers with a 0.3 percent decline as uncertainty grew ahead of a central bank policy meeting next week.

The BOJ plans to make its controversial negative interest rate policy the centrepiece of future monetary easing, promising to weigh further rate cuts as expansions to asset buying near their limits, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Wednesday.

"The moves in developed market fixed-income, which are largely behind the volatility, have stemmed from Japan and the potential changes in monetary policy," said Chris Weston, chief markets strategist at IG Markets.

"Secondly, some of the biggest systematic funds have had to alter their portfolios. The rest of the market participants have had to simply react."

Stock markets have come under pressure as investors cut positions after large inflows in recent weeks betting on a long period of low volatility and suppressed bond yields.

Inflows into emerging market equity funds amounted to $24 billion dollars over the past 10 weeks, the highest on record according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch flow data. An index of market volatility soared to its highest level in three months.

On Wall Street, S&P 500 Index lost 1.48 percent to 2,127.02, a two-month low. Although it has managed to hold above its 200-day moving average at 2,121, a break of that level could sap market confidence. Futures were flat.

Bond yields extended their rise, suggesting more losses for equity markets with yields on 30-year Japanese debt hitting the highest levels in six months, unnerving investors.

The 10-year U.S. Treasuries yield rose to a three-month high of 1.75 percent, having risen more than 20 basis points from a week ago.

The rise in U.S. bond yields came even as expectations on the Federal Reserve's monetary policy outlook hardly changed. U.S. interest rate futures are pricing in only about a 10 percent chance of a rate hike at next week's policy review.

While the rise in U.S. bond yields was in part due to heavy Treasury and corporate debt supply, it also reflected concerns about the limits of global central bank policy in reviving growth.

Bond markets have come under pressure in recent days from unease about a possible U.S. rate hike this month, news that the Bank of Japan is studying ways to steepen the bond yield curve and disappointment at the lack of clear forward-action plan by the European Central Bank at last week's meeting.

Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive officer of DoubleLine Capital, said on Tuesday that long-term decline in global bond yields is over and investors are watching out for a likely fiscal expansion in the world's major economies where monetary stimulus has reached its limits.

The prospects of a U.S. rate hike by the year-end helped to underpin the dollar against other currencies.

The euro dipped to $1.12200, a slight decline on the day and the week while the dollar also gained to 102.99 yen from Tuesday's low of 101.42 yen.

The yen was also dented by the Nikkei newspaper report on the BOJ and negative rates.

Short-dated Japanese bond yields fell, with the five-year JGB yield slipping 2.5 basis points to minus 0.200 percent while the two-year yield fell 2.0 basis point to hit a six-week low of minus 0.265 percent.

Crude oil prices edged up after a 3 percent tumble in the previous session. Brent futures rose 15 cents to $47.25 a barrel, while U.S. light crude rose 20 cents to $45.10 as data from an industry group showed a smaller-than-expected build in U.S. crude stocks. (Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Kim Coghill)
Asian stock markets open lower following the fall in the Dow Jones amid speculations about the Federal Reserve's target interest rates.