NEW YORK, New York - Sliding prices of bank shares kept buyers at bay on Wall Street Monday.

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on Friday, the second biggest U.S. bank failure in history, followed by the collapse of Signature bank on Sunday, the third biggest U.S. bank failure, rattled financial markets.

Nonetheless, the damage to U.S. stock markets was limited.

The Dow Jones industrials shed 90.50 points or 0.28 percent to close Monday at 31,819.14. It was the key index's fifth straight negative closing.

The Standard and Poor's 500 recovered from much-worse earlier losses, to lose 5.83 points or 0.15 percent to 3,855.76.

The Nasdaq Composite, going against the trend, rose 49.96 points or 0.45 percent to 11,188.84.

U.S. President Joe Biden sought to reassure Americans the banking system was safe. "Americans can have confidence that the banking system is safe," he said Monday,

"Your deposits will be there when you need them," he said.

The U.S. dollar was sold off sharply Monday as the bank failures caught the attention of investors and traders, The euro zoomed up to 1.0730. The Japanese yen jumped to 133.25. The British pound was sharply higher at 1.2182. The Swiss franc strengthened to 0.9119.

The Australian dollar firmed to 0.6666. The New Zealand dollar soared to 0.6220.

In Monday's global stock market trading, many major indices suffered significant losses. The German Dax was down 3.04 percent, in Paris, France, the CAC 40 was down 2.90 percent, while the ESTX 50 PR.EUR was down 3.14 percent. London's FTSE 100 tumbled 2.58 percent, with a closing price of 7,548.63.

Meanwhile, some Asian indices performed better. The HANG SENG INDEX in Hong Kong closed up 1.95 percent, while the Shanghai Composite Index was up 1.20 percent. The IDX COMPOSITE also rose slightly, closing up 0.32 percent.

In India, the S&P BSE SENSEX was down 1.52 percent, and in Malaysia, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was down 0.79 percent. The KOSPI Composite Index in Seoul, South Korea, closed up 0.67 percent.

Overall, it was a rough day for many global indices, with the Euronext 100 Index down 2.56 percent and the BEL 20 down 2.32 percent. The Australian All Ordinaries dropped 0.51 percent, while the S&P/NZX 50 INDEX GROSS closed down 0.46 percent.

Investors will be watching closely to see if these losses continue throughout the week, or if any indices are able to rebound.