South Korea leads Asian equities higher in early trading

US stocks were lower in early-afternoon trading on Monday, with declines among consumer discretionary, industrials and technology stocks offsetting gains for energy names.

Wall Street’s S&P 500 was down 0.1 per cent. Consumer discretionary, industrials and tech were the benchmark’s worst-performing sectors, down 0.5 per cent, 0.4 per cent and 0.3 per cent, respectively. The energy sector remained the top performer.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 0.1 per cent.

Government bonds were weaker as yields headed higher. The yield on the policy-sensitive two-year Treasury note was up 0.03 percentage points to 4.63 per cent while the yield on the benchmark 10-year note gained 0.04 percentage points to 4.26 per cent.