U.S. stocks decline on Fed officials' comments

U.S. stocks ended mildly lower Monday after wavering in a tight range, as Wall Street digested comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve officials for clues on the timing of the next rate hike.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 8.01 points, or 0.05 percent, to 17,492.93. The S&P 500 dipped 4.28 points, or 0.21 percent, to 2,048.04. The Nasdaq Composite Index inched down 3.78 points, or 0.08 percent, to 4,765.78.

Remarks from Fed officials indicated a rate hike sooner rather than later, which weighed on market sentiment.

San Francisco Fed President John Williams said on Monday that two-to-three rate hikes this year were reasonable and that inflation was on track to meet the Fed's goal of 2 percent in the next year or two, according to media reports.

St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard, a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, echoed that a relatively tight labor market in the United States may put upward pressure on inflation, supporting the case for higher interest rates.

Analysts believed that the possibility of a June rate hike becomes higher after the release of the Federal Reserve's hawkish minutes from its April meeting.

On the economic front, the seasonally adjusted Markit Flash U.S. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index came in at 50.5 in May, missing market consensus of 51.0. Enditem