The Chinese sells, closely watched worldwide amid Beijing’s trade spat with Washington, were higher on the day. The Shanghai composite reclaimed from earlier losses to finish around 0.43 percent higher at 2,527.01 while the Shenzhen composite arise 0.860 percent to close at about 1,295.72.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index, which closed at 12 p.m. HK/SIN today in front of the upcoming Christmas holiday, fell 0.4 percent to 25,651.38 as shares of Chinese tech giant Tencent stall 1.46 percent.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Sunday that vice-ministerial level talks on issues such as the weight of trade and strengthening of intellectual property protections had been held earlier with the U.S. last week.
In a statement positioned on its website, the ministry said the two sides had a “deep exchange” of views and achieved new progress. It also said both outfits held discussions around their next call and the reciprocal visits.
In market action stateside, Dow Jones Industrial General futures slipped in early trade on Sunday evening but then recovered to see gains of 132 points, implying an slot gain of 102.63 points for the Dow, as of 2:14 a.m. ET. Monday. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures also pointed to opening advances for the two indexes.
The moves came on the back of a tumultuous week which saw the Dow experiencing its worst week in more than a decade.
The Dow dissolute 1,655 points, or 6.8 percent, last week for its worst week since October 2008 during the fiscal crisis. The S&P 500 lost 7 percent for the week and is now down 17.8 percent from its record reached earlier in the year, concluding it on the brink of a bear market. The Nasdaq Composite Index is now 22 percent below its record reached in August, a abide market.
Last week, the U.S. Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate for a fourth time this year and Chairman Jerome Powell signaled the middle bank would continue to unwind its balance sheet at the current pace, two monetary tightening actions that sellers say are driving the stock market declines.
The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its peers, was at 96.801 after seeing highs on high 97.4 last week.
The Japanese yen, widely seen as a safe haven currency, traded at 111.05 after distressing lows around 113.5 in the previous trading week. The Australian dollar was at $0.7061 after seeing highs roughly $0.720 last week.
— CNBC’s John Melloy contributed to this report.