Investing.com - Wall Street traded lower on Monday with tech stocks leading losses as North Korea upped the ante on tensions with the U.S. and markets digested remarks from Federal Reserve policymakers ahead of a key speech from Fed chair Janet Yellen the following day.
At 11:42AM ET (15:42GMT), the Dow Jones fell 74 points, or 0.33%, the S&P 500 lost 9 points, or 0.37%, while the Nasdaq Composite slumped 64 points, or 0.99%.
Upping political tensions, North Korea’s foreign minister said that U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments over the weekend were equivalent to a declaration of war and said that Pyongyang has the right to shoot down U.S. bombers even if they are outside the country’s airspace.
The increased tension pushed safe haven assets such as gold, Treasuries, the yen and the Swiss franc higher as investors opted to take risk off the table.
In an otherwise uneventful day with no major economic reports, market participants were preparing for a speech from Yellen on Tuesday.
On Monday, New York Fed president New York Fed president William Dudley, generally considered to be closely aligned with Yellen’s way of thinking, reiterated his view that rate hikes would continue gradually because the economy is solid and factors depressing inflation are "fading".
Chicago Fed chief Charles Evans will be speaking at an economic luncheon at 12:40PM ET (16:40GMT).
At 6:30PM ET (22:30GMT), Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari will deliver a lecture on the Federal Reserve though further details had yet to be provided.
In company news, Swiss engineering firm ABB (SIX:ABBN) confirmed Monday that it will buy General Electric 's (NYSE:GE) industrial solutions business for $2.6 billion.
In big moves, shares of Allergan (NYSE:AGN) jumped nearly 4% as the drug maker announced a $2 billion share buyback and said its chief financial officer would retire.
General Motors (NYSE:GM) also gained more than 2% on the back of a positive recommendation from Deutsche Bank. The German broker raised GM to buy from hold due to a positive outlook for its autonomous cars.
Meanwhile, oil prices jumped around 2% on Monday as hopes for a market rebalance continued to propel bullish bets for black gold.
U.S. crude futures gained 1.99% to $51.67 by 11:44AM ET (15:44GMT), while Brent oil traded up 2.30% to $57.72.