The US dollar had touched its lowest level in nearly eight months on Monday, lifting metals prices and commodity sector stocks, and US crude reversed losses to settle above $40 a barrel.

Safe-haven gold hit a three-week high, while the yen hit its highest against the dollar in almost a year and a half, as investors remained anxious about the strength of the global economy. The yen's strength pushed Tokyo to warn it could again intervene against its currency's rally.

On Wall Street stocks gave up gains in late trading to end lower, with miners and banks the only gainers ahead of the unofficial start to quarterly reporting season.

Earnings at S&P 500 companies are expected to have fallen 7.7 per cent in the first quarter from a year ago. Excluding the energy sector, reeling from the slide in crude prices since mid 2014, the S&P earnings decline estimate improves to minus 2.6 per cent according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data.

“This is just all jitters and anticipation of the beginning of earnings season,” said Jonathan Corpina, senior managing partner with Meridian Equity Partners in New York. “The expectations aren't that high for earnings this quarter, so I think investors are starting to feel a little uneasy about that.”

US stocks

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 20.55 points, or 0.12 per cent, to 17,556.41, the S&P 500 lost 5.61 points, or 0.27 per cent, to 2,041.99 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 17.29 points, or 0.36 per cent, to 4,833.40.

Volume on US exchanges was 7.6 per cent below the average in the past 10 days.

European shares

Europe's FTSEuroFirst 300 index of leading shares ended up 0.3 per cent, helped by miners and a rally in Italian bank shares. European stocks have fallen for the last four weeks, and another down week would mark their worst run since mid-2013.

MSCI's gauge of shares across the globe rose 0.1 per cent and Nikkei futures fell 0.5 per cent.

Yen in focus

The US dollar was last down less than 0.1 per cent against the yen at 107.96 yen from a low of 107.61, the strongest reading for the yen since late October 2014.

The greenback's slide against Japanese currency prompted a warning from Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who said recent yen moves were one-sided and speculative and that the government would take steps as needed.

“The market is not afraid of intervention at these levels," said Vassili Serebriakov, currency strategist at BNP Paribas in New York. “Most people would look at 100 yen as the more realistic level in which Japan could intervene.”

Euro vs dollar

The euro was little changed on the day against the greenback at $1.1405, still not far from a six-month high touched last week.

The dollar index hit its lowest level since late August.

Spot gold

The weaker dollar helped lift gold to its highest in three weeks. Spot gold rose to $1,258.70 an ounce, its highest since March 22. It was last up about 1.4 per cent at $1,257.26.

Peru's select stock index rose 8.6 per cent, the most for any session since late 2008, while the sol currency strengthened 2.6 per cent, its largest one-day percentage gain since at least 2002. Keiko Fujimori, the conservative daughter of a jailed former president, was heading towards a tight runoff against investor favorite Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

Treasury yields

In bond markets, the benchmark Treasury 10-year note was little changed, down 1/32 in price to yield 1.7254 per cent from 1.722 per cent late on Friday.

Brent crude prices rose to a four-month high as a rally in wider commodities markets encouraged buying ahead of a meeting of oil producers in Doha next Sunday, aimed at freezing current output levels.

Brent crude futures

Brent crude futures, the global benchmark, were up 2.2 per cent at $42.85 a barrel, having touched a session high of $43.06, the highest level since December 7. US crude futures rose 1.7 per cent to $40.40 a barrel. Both Brent and US crude rose more than 6 per cent on Friday.

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