| schema:articleBody
| - Fears about inflation and rising infections in several countries dimmed the mood on global markets Monday and drove the dollar down, although there was good news on trade as Brussels and Washington called a truce on metals tariffs. European markets closed lower and US indices were in the red in morning deals. "Volatility lingers in the wake of last week's wild ride as the markets continue to grapple with the implications of rising inflation pressures on global monetary policies and continued optimism of robust economic and earnings growth," Charles Schwab analysts wrote. Mounting price pressures in the US are raising fears the Federal Reserve could call time on its easy-money policy, although the Fed has said it will ride out volatility in inflation data caused by comparisons with the early months of the pandemic last year. "It may take more time to reopen a $20 trillion economy than it did to shut it down," Fed Vice Chair Richard Clarida said Monday ahead of the closely-watched publication of minutes from the central bank's latest policy meeting. With the Fed focused on the jobs side of its dual mandate, "our baseline view is that achieving maximum employment will not put unwanted or unwelcome upward pressure on the price level," he said. In Asia, Singapore and Taiwan tightened restrictions to control rising coronavirus infections, while Chinese retail sales fell short of expectations, cooling hopes that consumption there would help power a global post-coronavirus recovery. "Latest activity data... reinforced the message that the country's economy is clearly slowing, as it drifts back to its pre-pandemic trend and authorities remove policy support," Capital Economics analyst Thomas Matthews commented. But there was good news on transatlantic trade, as the US and EU called a truce on Trump-era tariff battles over steel and aluminium. The two sides announced "discussions to address global steel and aluminium excess capacity" that will see Brussels temporarily suspend a plan to increase tariffs on high-profile American goods. In company news, AT&T said it plans to merge its WarnerMedia division with Discovery, creating a new standalone media giant to compete with rivals like Netflix and Disney+. Meanwhile trading in Hong Kong's largest pro-democracy media group was suspended Monday, days after authorities froze the assets of its jailed owner Jimmy Lai under a new national security law. Next Digital Limited -- which publishes the Apple Daily newspaper -- said it would halt trading "pending the release of an announcement" about Lai's frozen assets, in a statement to the city's stock exchange. Elsewhere, bitcoin fell to $42,185 briefly, its lowest since February, after Elon Musk on Sunday appeared to suggest his Tesla carmaker may sell -- or already had sold -- its holdings in the cryptocurrency. The unit later pared the losses to sit at $43,670. Tesla had already hammered the digital currency last week when it said it will halt bitcoin transactions because of environmental concerns. New York - Dow: DOWN 0.5 percent at 34,199.57 points London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.2 percent at 7,032.85 (close) Frankfurt - DAX 30: DOWN 0.1 percent at 15,396.62 (close) Paris - CAC 40: DOWN 0.3 percent at 6.367.35 (close) EURO STOXX 50: DOWN 0.3 percent at 4,006.84 Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.9 percent at 27,824.83 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.6 percent at 28,194.09 (close) Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.8 percent at 3,517.62 (close) Euro/dollar: UP at $1.2153 from $1.2140 at 2115 GMT on Friday Pound/dollar: UP at $1.4124 from $1.4100 Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.05 pence from 86.07 pence Dollar/yen: DOWN at 109.17 yen from 109.34 yen Brent North Sea crude: UP 1.0 percent at $69.44 per barrel West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.3 percent at $66.19 dan-bcp/tgb/cdw
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)