Global shares eased on Monday ahead of a week packed with economic data and central bank meetings, along with earnings from the tech giants that have kept the S&P 500 afloat this year.
Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp alone have accounted for nearly half of the S&P 500′s gains in the last month, so there is much riding on their outlooks. The U.S. House of Representatives could this week vote on a Republican plan to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for spending cuts. Weak tax receipts mean the government could run out of money earlier than expected, and, as a result, the cost of insuring against a U.S. sovereign default is at its highest in well over a decade.
Only three out of 27 economists polled by Reuters expect the BOJ to start to scale-back its yield curve control policy this soon. Pierre Wunsch, an ECB policymaker, said he would only agree to pausing rate rises once there was evidence that wage growth was slowing.The euro was largely flat against the dollar at $1.09795 and against the yen at 147.42. The dollar was last up 0.1% against the Japanese currency at 134.21.