Stocks slip, bond yields dip from four-month highs

By Dion Rabouin

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Major stock markets around the world fell on Monday and U.S. and European bond yields slipped from four-month highs amid uncertainty over the health of the global economy.

U.S. stocks fell as declining oil prices pushed energy stocks down and consumer discretionary shares stumbled.

Stocks moved lower after comments from Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer, who said economic stability could be threatened by low interest rates, but it was "not that simple" for the Fed to raise rates.

European stocks closed lower across the board with the pan-European FTSE Eurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index down 0.69 percent.

A global tracker of emerging market stock indexes <.MSCIEF> fell 0.26 percent.

"We’ve got a bunch of uncertainty coming up. You have first the election, then you have the OPEC meeting where they are finally going to actually say what they are going to do and at some point here you probably have a 25-basis point increase in the Fed funds rate," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Group in Bedford Hills, New York.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 51.98 points, or 0.29 percent, to 18,086.4, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 6.48 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,126.5 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 14.34 points, or 0.27 percent, to 5,199.82.

A gauge of equity markets around the globe <.MIWD00000PUS> was down 0.34 percent.

Oil prices fell, weighed by oversupply concerns, with a spike in trade volume driving U.S. prices back below $50.

Brent crude futures were down around 1 percent at $51.55, with U.S. crude futures at $49.91 per barrel, down 1.25 percent.

U.S. and European government bonds reversed earlier selling and rose in price on bargain-hunting by investors who scooped up government debt that had fallen in price on Friday following remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, analysts said. Yellen had said the central bank may tolerate inflation above its 2-percent goal.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury note yields earlier hit their highest since June 2 and German and British bonds touched their highest since late June.

Buying in Treasuries increased in afternoon U.S. trading as losses on Wall Street and a surprise drop in a New York Federal Reserve gauge on regional business activity in October also supported demand.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose 7/32 in price to yield 1.766 percent, falling from a high of 1.814 percent.

British 10-year gilt yields were last at 1.126 percent, falling from 1.223 percent in European trading, the highest since June 20.

German 10-year bunds were last yielding 0.057 percent, falling from 0.104 percent, their highest since June 24.

The U.S. dollar retreated from a seven-month high as some investors took profit following a recent rally that received a boost on Friday by Yellen's comments and solid U.S. data.

Safe-haven gold edged up 0.33 percent as buyers began to resurface after a 6 percent fall over the last few weeks.

(Editing by Nick Zieminski and Bernadette Baum)

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