US stocks struggled for direction on Monday, following a bounce last week, as traders debated the extent to which an economic slowdown would sway central banks’ plans for aggressive rate rises.

The S&P 500 share index ended Monday 0.3 per cent lower, after a turbulent day of trading in which the index slowly gave up earlier gains. The blue-chip share benchmark remains about 18 per cent lower for the year. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, which is stacked with growth stocks that have swooned this year owing to their sensitivity to changes in interest rate expectations, slipped 0.9 per cent.

The FTSE All-World index of global stocks has also dropped about 18 per cent this year, as scorching consumer price inflation — now running at an annual rate of 8.6 per cent in the US — prompted the Federal Reserve and other global rate-setters to rapidly tighten monetary policy.