US stocks ended mostly lower as the dollar gained strength

US stocks ended mostly lower as the dollar gained strength, dragging commodity and other stocks.

In the day’s only economic data, leading indicators rose 0.6% in August, the fifth straight monthly gain and highest reading since January 2008. This came after a revised 0.9-percent gain in July and was slightly lower than the 0.7-percent uptick economists had expected.

In commodities, crude fell more than 3% to below USD 69 after the greenback strengthened.

In Forex markets, the dollar rose, hitting a near two-week high against the yen as investors trimmed big short positions ahead of this week’s Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting. The dollar rose more than 1% against the yen the dollar index, rose to around 77, but is currently below that level.

At closing bell, the Dow Jones was down 41.34 points, or 0.4%, to 9,778.86. The S&P 500 index fell 3.64 points, or 0.3%, to 1,064.66, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index rose 5.18 points, or 0.2%, to 2,138.04.

Indian ADRs ended mixed on Monday. However, losers outnumbered the gainers. In IT space, Satyam Computers was down 3.24% at $ 6.27, Wipro was down 0.24% at $ 16.85 and Patni Computers was down 0.87% at $ 18.31. However, Infosys was up 0.6% at $ 48.97.

In Banking space, ICICI Bank was down 0.99% at $ 35.06 and HDFC Bank was down 0.75% at $ 107.73. In Telecom space, MTNL was up 1.63% at $ 3.73 and Tata Communication was up 3.28% at $ 20.49.

In other sectors, Sterlite Industries was down 1.78% at $ 15.45, Tata Motors was down 0.39% at $ 12.8 and Dr Reddy’s Labs was down 0.33% at $ 18.04.

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