Dollar turns positive for 2018, U.S. stocks fall

By Caroline Valetkevitch

New York(Reuters) - The dollar broke into positive territory for the year and U.S. Bondyields inched higher again on Tuesday as the recent rise in Oil Pricesfuelled expectations the Federal Reserve could flag more interest rate hikes at its policy meeting this week.

U.S. stocks fell in late morning trading as the latest batch of earnings from companies such as Pfizer and Tapestry , formerly Coach, disappointed investors, and as Energy Sharesfell.

Apple's quarterly results are due after Wall Street closes and will be a big focus after several weeks of speculation about ebbing Smartphonedemand based on selective reports from companies in its supply chain.

Technology Sectorresults so far - at least from the likes of Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Samsungand SAP - have broadly beaten forecasts for Q1 and the overall aggregate U.S. earnings growth is tracking seven-year highs of almost 25 percent.

The dollar attracted attention as it turned positive for 2018 <.DXY> just ahead of a two-day Fed meeting that is expected to pave the way for another two or even three U.S. rate hikes this year.

A divergence between growth and the rate outlook versus those of other countries prompted investors to push the currency higher.

The dollar index <.DXY> rose 0.65 percent, with the euro down 0.65 percent to $1.1998.

"We're pretty much back to where we were at the beginning of the year, so a lot of the dollar weakness has been pretty much wiped out," said Sireen Harajli, Foreign Exchange Strategistat Mizuhoin New York

The Dow Jones Industrial Average<.DJI> fell 258.77 points, or 1.07 percent, to 23,904.38, the S%26p 500<.SPX> lost 13.31 points, or 0.50 percent, to 2,634.74 and the Nasdaq Composite<.IXIC> dropped 7.74 points, or 0.11 percent, to 7,058.52.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe <.MIWD00000PUS> shed 0.54 percent.

May Dayholidays across Asiaand Europemeant trading was thinner than usual.

For Europe's stocks followers, only London's FTSE and Denmark's bourse were open. [.EU]

U.s. Treasuryyields rose, with prices pressured ahead of a quarterly refunding announcement. The U.s. Treasuryis scheduled to announce its findings on a refunding survey on Wednesday, with analysts projecting an increase in auction sizes, or new issuance at different points on the Yield Curve

Benchmark 10-year notes last fell 10/32 in price to yield 2.9718 percent, from 2.936 percent late on Monday.

Brent Oil Priceseased off four-month highs of just over $75 a barrel set on Monday on worries that U.S. PresidentDonald Trumpmay pull out of the 2015 Irannuclear deal and thereby bring back sanctions on its Oil Output

The White Househad said on Monday that information provided by Israelon Iran's nuclear programme had provided "new and compelling details".

A high-level U.S. trade delegation will also be in Beijingfor meetings later this week, amid lingering worries about a possible trade war between the world's top two economies.

U.S. crude fell 1.23 percent to $67.73 per barrel and Brent was last at $73.72, down 1.3 percent on the day.

Gold slid to a two-month low as the dollar strengthened. Spot gold was down 0.7 percent at $1,306.26 an ounce, off an earlier low of $1,305.36, its weakest since March 1.

(Additional report by Karen Brettell in New York, Marc Jones and Jan Harvey in Londonand Hideyuki Sano in, Tokyo; Editing by Hugh Lawsonand Chizu Nomiyama)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)