GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks rise, dollar falls as investors assess mixed Fed messages

By Sinéad Carew and Nell Mackenzie

NEW YORK/LONDON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - MSCI's global stock index rose on Monday with a few U.S. tecnology stocks leading the charge while gold prices rallied sharply and the dollar pulled back, with Federal Reserve officials giving mixed messages about future interest rate cuts.

Investors were also still digesting the latest U.S. immigration news after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that U.S. companies would need to pay $100,000 for new H-1B worker visas, a potential blow to the dominant U.S. tech sector.

Wall Street indexes were looking to build onto last week's record highs, with the bulk of the gains from megacaps Nvidia NVDA.O and Apple Inc AAPL.O after Nvidia announced a $100 billion investment and analysts said demand for Apple's latest iPhone appeared strong.

"Right now we're depending on very narrow leadership. Also the market's been going straight up all month, all quarter and since April started. You can have some consolidation and it's perfectly appropriate," said Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Stamford, Connecticut.

Fed Governor Stephen Miran said the central bank should cut interest rates aggressively to reduce risks to the economy's outlook. But he was the most dovish of the Fed officials commenting publicly on Monday.

St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem said that after last week's rate cut there may be limited room for further reductions ,given inflation above the Fed's 2% target. And Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said he does not currently see the need for further interest rate cuts this year due to inflation concerns, according to an interview published by the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

"Most of the Fed speakers except for Miran are on the hawkish side, but the market is up so its not affecting the market," O'Rourke said.

However, with Fed officials including Chair Jerome Powell, due to speak and key inflation data due out on later in the week, Carol Schleif, chief market strategist at BMO Private Wealth Management, said that the trading week could be volatile.

On Wall Street all three major indexes had opened lower. But at 03:05 p.m. the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 92.86 points, or 0.20%, to 46,408.13, the S&P 500 .SPX rose 30.47 points, or 0.46%, to 6,694.59 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC rose 155.09 points, or 0.69%, to 22,786.56.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS rose 3.88 points, or 0.40%, to 985.63.

Earlier, the pan-European STOXX 600 .STOXX index closed down 0.13%.

India's benchmark indexes lost ground after Trump's H-1B announcements, as India's $283 billion information technology sector, which gets more than half its revenue from the U.S., is expected to feel the pain in the near term. The move follows Trump's doubling of tariffs on imports from India last month to as much as 50%, partly due to New Delhi's purchases of Russian oil.

In currencies, the U.S. dollar was poised to snap a three-day winning streak against the euro and the Swiss franc as monitoried the Fed comments.

The dollar index =USD, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.4% to 97.34.

The euro EUR= was up 0.44% at $1.1796, while against the Swiss franc CHF= the dollar weakened 0.38% to 0.792.

Against the Japanese yen JPY=, the dollar weakened 0.17% to147.69.

Meanwhile, Argentina's international dollar bonds rallied after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said "all options for stabilization are on the table" to support Argentina, with more details available after Argentine President Javier Milei and U.S. President Donald Trump meet on Tuesday in New York.

In U.S. Treasuries, yields were little changed as the market appeared to have settled down following the Fed interest rate cut last week for the first time in 2025.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes US10YT=RR rose 0.2 basis points to 4.141%, from 4.139% late on Friday, while the 30-year bond US30YT=RR yield rose 0.2 basis points to 4.7576%.

The 2-year note US2YT=RR yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, rose 1.7 basis points to 3.599%.

In energy markets, oil prices were close to flat as worries of an oversupply were countered by geopolitical tensions in Russia and the Middle East.

U.S. crude CLc1 settled down 0.06%, or 4 cents, at $62.64 a barrel and Brent LCOc1 ended the session at $66.57 per barrel, down 0.16% or 11 cents on the day.

In precious metals, gold prices hit fresh record highs, buoyed by investors' heightened expectations of a dovish rate-cut path, ahead of remarks by Fed officials and key inflation data later in the week.

"There's a continued flow of safe-haven demand amid geopolitical matters that are still kind of wobbly, including the Russia-Ukraine war. Last week's Fed interest rate cut and probably more Fed rate cuts coming by the end of the year" are also supporting prices, said Jim Wyckoff, senior analyst at Kitco Metals.

Spot gold XAU= rose 1.74% to $3,747.67 an ounce. U.S. gold futures GCc1 rose 2.03% to $3,745.90 an ounce.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin BTC= fell 2.49% to $112,562.57. Ethereum ETH= declined 7.25% to $4,155.13.