Asian markets were broadly lower on Monday morning as trade tensions between the U.S. and China remain in focus.
The Nikkei 225 was slightly up in early trade, while South Korea’s Kospi was largely flat.
Down Under, the ASX 200 slid by 0.26 percent as the heavily weighted financials sector declined by 0.47 percent.
Wall Street ended the trading week in negative territory on Friday. The Nasdaq Composite slid by 0.3 percent to close at 7,902.54, declining for the fourth straight day and posting its worst start to September since 2008. The S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent to close at 2,871.68. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 79.33 points to 25,916.54.
The moves stateside came after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that the country was primed to impose tariffs on an additional $267 billion worth in Chinese goods. Trump’s comments came following the end of a deadline for public comment on U.S. tariffs for another $200 billion in Chinese goods.
While the U.S. tariffs on $200 billion Chinese goods have not been implemented, Trump said they could “take place very soon, depending on what happens with them.”
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies, was at 95.370 as of 8:12 a.m. HK/SIN, off its high from last Friday.
The Japanese yen strengthened slightly against the greenback at 110.96, while the Australian dollar also saw a mild gain at $0.7114, as of 8:10 a.m. HK/SIN.
In the oil markets, prices saw increases in the morning of Asian trade. The global benchmark Brent crude futures were up by 0.47 percent at $77.19 a barrel. U.S. crude futures also gained by 0.5 percent at $68.09 a barrel.
— CNBC’s Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
