World shares start week lower, tracking Wall St retreat

BANGKOK (AP) — World shares were lower Monday after a retreat on Wall Street, as investors awaited the next steps by the Federal Reserve in its quest to tamp down inflation.

U.S. futures were nearly unchanged, while oil prices fell nearly $1 a barrel.

Investors are awaiting next moves by the U.S. Federal Reserve, which is expected to raise its key interest rate again on Wednesday as it strives to beat back inflation.

European shares opened mostly lower, with the DAX in Germany down 0.3% at 13,219.67. The CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.1% lower, to 6,213.17, while Britain's FTSE 100 also lost 0.1%, to 7,269.58.

The future for the Dow industrials was unchanged and that for the S&P 500 was down only a fraction of a point.

In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 shed 0.8% to 27,699.25 and the Kospi in Seoul rose 0.4% to 2,403.69.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.2% to 20,562.94, while the Shanghai Composite index gave up 0.6% to 3,250.39.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 edged 1.6 points lower to 6,789.90.

The Fed will likely announce its second 0.75% point increase in its short-term rate in a row, a hefty increase that it hasn’t otherwise implemented since 1994. That will put the Fed’s benchmark rate in a range of 2.25% to 2.5%, the highest level since 2018.

The U.S. economy is slowing but healthy hiring shows it is not yet in recession, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” She spoke ahead of the release this week of a slew of economic reports that will shed light on an economy currently besieged by rampant inflation as interest rates rise.

The highest-profile report will likely be Thursday, when the Commerce Department will release its first estimate of the economy’s output in the April-June...