NEW YORK, New York - The euphoria on Wall Street of late last week was absent on Monday as all the major indices scooted into the red.

"In these kind of bear market rallies, it's more about things getting a little too oversold, a little too negative," Baird's Ross Mayfield told CNBC Monday. "But those aren't enough on their own to really sustain the rally, they just can provide relief in pockets."

"From here, the expectation is probably once again that we've hit peak inflation, even if the rollover is very slow, and that financial markets should see reduced volatility into year-end," Tom Tzitzouris, head of fixed income research at Strategas was quoted as saying by CNBC. "If we see another push higher in inflation, however, all bets are off and volatility should accelerate again."

The Dow Jones industrials fell 62.42 points or 0.20 percent to 31,438.26.

The Nasdaq Composite slid 96.97 points or 0.83 percent to 11,511.65.

The Standard and Poor's 500 retreated 11.62 points or 0.30 points to 3,900.12.

The U.S. dollar inched up after drifting lower earlier in the day. By the close in New York Monday, the euro was fetching 1.0578. The British pound edged down to 1.2263. The Japanese yen was little changed at 135.77. The Swiss franc was a tad higher at 0.9564.

The Canadian dollar edged up to 1.2877. The Australian dollar was a fraction lower at 0.6918. The New Zealand dollar softened to 0.6293.

On overseas equity markets, the Dax in Germany advanced 0.52 percent. London's FTSE 100 added 0.69 percent. The CAC 40 in Paris was down 0.52 percent.

The Australian All Ordinaries and Hong Kong's Hang Seng were the stand-outs in Asia on Monday with gains of around two percent.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng closed ahead 510.46 points or 2.35 percent at 22,229.52.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gained 379.30 points or 1.43 percent to 26,871.27.

China's Shanghai Composite advanced 29.44 points or 0.88 percent to 3,379.19.

In New Zealand, the S&P/NZX 50 rallied 184.00 points or 1.70 percent to 10,997.92.

The Australian All Ordinaries climbed 131.20 points or 1.94 percent to 6,893.60.

South Korea's Kospi Composite firmed 35.33 points or 1.49 percent to 10,997.92.