* Oil touches 1-month low
* Dovish Rosengren expects earlier Fed hike than does market
* Defensive stocks advance in Europe, U.S.
(Adds close of U.S. markets, oil settlement prices)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, April 4 (Reuters) - The dollar edged lower on
Monday on contradictory views of prospects for an increase in
U.S. interest rates, while oil prices stayed under pressure on
skepticism producers would be able to freeze output to stem a
global glut.
A usually dovish U.S. central banker, Boston Federal Reserve
President Eric Rosengren, said it was "surprising" that futures
markets currently imply only one or no interest-rate hikes this
year, a prediction he said could prove "too pessimistic."
That temporarily moved the dollar .DXY up to a session
high of 94.829 against a basket of major currencies. The
greenback was last down 0.09 percent at 94.535, its fifth
decline in six sessions.
Investors have been trying to reconcile conflicting
statements from U.S. Federal Reserve officials in recent weeks
since the central bank issued its policy statement on March 16.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said last week the
central bank would proceed cautiously in raising rates, in
contrast to more hawkish comments from other Fed officials. The
apparent lack of cohesion has left investors uncertain in an
environment of mixed economic data.
"Obviously they have to come to a consensus and certainly
Yellen drives that more than anyone else but then everyone on
the Board and even those that aren't voters this year go out and
say things that are that are completely contradictory," said
Randy Frederick, managing director of trading and derivatives
for Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) in Austin, Texas.
"I'm not sure that the new Fed transparency is of any value
if they all disagree with each other anyway."
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis President Neel Kashkari
and Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan were scheduled to
speak later on Monday.
New orders for U.S. factory goods fell in February and
business spending on capital goods was much weaker than
initially thought, the latest sign first-quarter economic growth
remained sluggish.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 55.75 points,
or 0.31 percent, to 17,737, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 6.65 points,
or 0.32 percent, to 2,066.13 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC
dropped 22.75 points, or 0.46 percent, to 4,891.80.
MSCI's index of world shares .MIWD00000PUS was flat. The
pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 share index .FTEU3 closed up
0.46 percent, led higher by gains in defensive sectors such as
utilities and healthcare.
Brent crude LCOc1 , settled down 2.5 percent at $37.69, its
lowest since March 4. U.S. crude CLc1 settled off 3 percent at
$35.70 as a global glut seemed likely to continue. Iran will
raise its crude output and exports until it reaches pre-sanction
levels, the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Oil Minister
Bijan Zanganeh as saying.
Prices have fallen from above $100 a barrel since mid-2014
on a supply glut, bottoming at $27.10 in late January. Brent
topped $42.50 last month in anticipation of agreement among
producers to freeze output.
Copper prices CMCU3 hit a one-month low of $4,757.50 a
tonne on concern about Chinese demand for metals and was last
down 1.5 percent at $4,760.50.
Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR were last
up 7/32 in price to yield 1.7688 percent, after hitting a
one-month low of 1.753 percent. (Editing by Nick Zieminski and Dan Grebler)