Visits: 2
Asian markets were broadly in negative territory on Monday morning, amid reports over the weekend that the U.S. could be imposing new tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods as early as this week.
In South Korea, the Kospi saw losses of 0.49 percent in morning trade, with industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics sliding further by 0.98 percent.
Greater China markets were also largely in negative territory during the early hours of trade, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropping by 1.18 percent after its recovery late last week. Over on the mainland, the Shanghai composite traded down by 0.56 percent while the Shenzhen composite fell by 0.678 percent.
Down Under, the ASX 200 bucked the overall trend to trade slightly up in the morning, as the health care sector continued to trade down by 1.04 percent after an announcement by skin and hair care product marketer BWX that it was going to stay independent. That followed the withdrawal of a proposal for acquisition from a consortium led by Bain Capital. Shares of BWX recovered from their earlier losses to trade up by 3.67 percent in the morning.
In U.S. market action last Friday, the S&P 500 saw a slight gain to close at 2,904.98, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 8.68 points at 26,154.67 and the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.1 percent to 8,010.04.
The gains on Wall Street were largely kept in check following a report by Bloomberg that U.S. President Donald Trump still wanted to impose tariffs on $200 billion on Chinese goods despite attempts by Washington to reopen trade talks with Beijing.
On Sunday, a source told CNBC that that the new round of tariffs on Chinese goods was being readied ahead of the scheduled trade talks with Beijing, in line with an earlier report by the Wall Street Journal on Saturday that said the White House was set to impose the tariffs at 10 percent instead of the earlier number of 25 percent.
The Journal then followed up with another report on Sunday citing Chinese officials saying that Beijing could decline to participate in the proposed trade talks with the U.S. if Washington goes ahead with imposing the additional tariffs on Chinese imports.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies, was at 94.933 as of 9:45 a.m. HK/SIN, largely holding on to its gains from last Friday.
“(The U.S. dollar) will take guidance this week from any trade discussion and bond and equity market movements,” said Richard Grace, chief currency strategist and head of international economics at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
The Japanese yen weakened slightly to trade largely flat against the dollar at 112.03 while the Australian dollar changed course to strengthen at $0.7156, as of 9:45 a.m. HK/SIN.
“This week, AUD/USD will take some guidance from the minutes of the (Reserve Bank of Australia’s) September policy meeting on Tuesday. We don’t expect much of a currency market reaction,” said Grace.
Here is a look at the economic data ahead:
- Indonesia — Trade data for August at 12:00 p.m. HK/SIN
- Hong Kong — Port container throughput monthly estimates for August