• Banking stocks led the Dow Jones higher as investors turned their attention to the Federal Reserve's upcoming meeting on monetary policy. According to CME Group's FedWatch Tool, there's a 99.6% chance the Fed raises rates on June 14.
• Asian stocks edged lower early on Monday following a slide by U.S. technology shares and the dollar rose ahead of this week's U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting, with markets hoping for more guidance on the central bank's interest rate path.
• The Fed holds a two-day meeting ending on Wednesday at which it is widely expected to hike interest rates. The focus is on whether the Fed thinks the U.S. economy is robust enough to withstand further rate increases through 2017.
• MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was down 0.1 percent following a mixed day Friday on Wall Street where the Nasdaq .IXIC slid 1.8 percent on tumbling technology shares but the Dow .DJI closed at yet another record high.
• MSCI's Asia-Pacific index was still in reach of a two-year high scaled late last week.
• Japan's Nikkei .N225 was down 0.5 percent and South Korea's KOSPI slid 0.5 percent. Australian markets were closed for a public holiday.
• "Political events like the UK election and Comey's testimony are over and the focus this weeks shifts to monetary policy," said Junichi Ishikawa, senior forex strategist at IG Securities in Tokyo.
"The equity markets and the dollar have mostly priced in the Fed signalling three rate hikes in 2017. That explains why U.S. equities have held up. But if the Fed hints at more than three hikes, that could trigger a sell-off in equities that many are bracing for."
Reference: Reuters, Money Morning
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