Asia markets are set to open a touch lower on Monday as investors attempt to shake off jitters about trade tensions between the United States and China.
Australia’s SPI futures traded at 6,180, which was a touch lower than the ASX 200‘s previous finish at 6,225.2.
Nikkei futures in Osaka traded at 22,490 while Chicago futures traded at 22,515. The Japanese benchmark index finished the Friday session around 22,516.83.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump doubled-down on his rhetoric on Twitter, calling on other countries to end all trade barriers or face a new round of retaliatory measures.
Last week, Trump requested the United States Trade Representative identify $200 billion worth of Chinese goods for potential additional tariffs at a rate of 10 percent. That threat followed levies announced by both nations earlier in the month. Consequently, Beijing said it could deliver its own set of new counter measures.
The uncertainty over a trade war, and the tit-for-tat dispute between the two countries, sent markets around the globe on a roller-coaster ride last week. Still, reports suggested that some White House officials were trying to restart talks with China to avoid a full-blown trade war.
Elsewhere, the greenback slipped against a basket of currencies as the dollar index traded at 94.503, falling from levels above 94.800 reached in the previous week. Still, the index was up from an earlier session low of 94.476.
Among other currency pairs, the Japanese yen traded at 109.89 to the greenback. The Australian dollar fetched about $0.7437.
Meanwhile, the Turkish lira firmed against the dollar at 4.6037, up from an earlier low of 4.6755. That followed reports that said President Tayyip Erdogan had 56.5 percent of the vote with half of the votes counted in Turkey’s presidential election on Sunday.
—CNBC’s Fred Imbert contributed to this report.
