Stocks Under Pressure as Energy, Tech Shares Slip

Tech shares under pressure

-- Oil prices drop ahead of OPEC meeting

-- Bond yields edge lower

Global stocks struggled for traction Monday after steep declines in Chinese and South Korean markets.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 0.4 points to 23558 shortly after the opening bell. The S&P 500 added less than 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.1%.

The Stoxx Europe 600 swung between small gains and losses and was last down 0.3%, with shares of Swiss private-banking company Julius Baer Group among the biggest decliners after its chief executive resigned.

Elsewhere, Shanghai stocks dropped to a three-month low and South Korea's Kospi index posted its biggest daily decline since August.

China's CSI 300, which consists of the biggest stocks in Shanghai and Shenzhen, fell 1.3% Monday after slumping on Thursday.

"It is quite clear that the People's Bank of China is trying to break the notion of an implicit guarantee" to all Chinese firms, said Xie Dongming, head of Greater China research at OCBC Bank.

Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley downgraded stock ratings for Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor, by far the largest components in South Korea's Kospi and Taiwan's TAIEX, weighing down technology shares across the region.

Much of the recent selloff in Asian shares has come from companies that have already posted massive gains this year, said Andrea Cicione, head of strategy at TS Lombard, noting investors are questioning whether they are willing to pay up front for all the growth that these companies will deliver.

"But we haven't seen anything for the moment that worries us," he said, noting fundamentally, the outlook for the economy and global equities remains sound and investors generally feel they can't afford to miss out on this market.

While Monday's economic calendar is light, a series of data reports are due from around the world later this week. The U.S. Commerce Department releases inflation data for October, while the Senate Banking Committee holds a confirmation hearing for Jerome Powell, the man nominated to serve as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve.

The retail sector is also likely to remain in focus later Monday after climbing Friday in the U.S. ahead of a weekend of holiday sales.

"It would seem like we are off to a good start [to the holiday shopping season]", said JJ Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade. Hopes for a solid final quarter as well as better-than-expected earnings reports have drawn some investors back into beaten down retail shares in recent sessions.

"It's actually a much brighter outlook for retail than perhaps many of us thought six months ago," he said.

In commodities, Brent crude oil was last down 0.7% at $63.21 a barrel ahead of an OPEC meeting Thursday, while copper futures fell 1.2% to $6,934 a ton.

As investors favored assets considered safe, yields on 10-year German bonds fell to 0.343% from 0.361% Friday while 10-year Treasury yields fell to 2.332% from 2.342%. Yields move inversely to prices.

Gold rose 0.5% to $1,293 an ounce, while the yen strengthened 0.2% against the dollar.

Grace Zhu contributed to this article.

Write to Riva Gold at riva.gold@wsj.com and Kenan Machado at kenan.machado@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 27, 2017 09:55 ET (14:55 GMT)