In Asian Equity Markets both Australia and Hong Kong’s markets were lower in the morning of the first trading day of the week. The ASX 200 fell by 0.22 percent in the morning, as the heavily weighted financial sector traded down by 0.28 percent. Commonwealth Bank of Australia fell by 0.88 percent, while AMP was down by 0.93 percent. Rare earths miner Lynas saw its stock falling by 17.5 percent, after the company announced earlier that it was aware of media speculation surrounding a possible review of its operations in Malaysia.

In Currency Markets the safe-haven Japanese yen briefly blipped higher on Monday as investors reacted to news China had canceled trade talks with the United States just as the latest round of tariffs are set to take effect. The trade-exposed Australian dollar went the other way, taking an early hit after China also summoned the U.S. ambassador in Beijing and postponed military talks in protest against a U.S. decision to sanction a Chinese military agency. The Aussie crawled up to 81.91 yen, after an initial decline to 81.34, but was still down 0.2 percent on the U.S. dollar at $0.7276.

In Commodities Markets oil prices rose on Monday as U.S. markets tightened just weeks ahead of Washington’s plan to impose new sanctions against Iran, with U.S. bank J.P. Morgan warning of price spikes above $90 per barrel in coming months. The bank said it expects Brent and WTI to average $85 and $76 per barrel, respectively, over the next six months. Brent crude futures were at $79.71 per barrel, up by 91 cents, or 1.2 percent. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose by 75 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $71.53 a barrel.

In US Equity Markets the benchmark S&P 500 and the Dow touched record highs on Friday. Under Armour rose 2.6 percent, for the second straight session, after J.P. Morgan upgraded the sportswear maker’s shares. The S&P 500 lost 1.08 points, or 0.04 percent, to 2,929.67 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 41.28 points, or 0.51 percent, to 7,986.96. Telecoms rose 1 percent on its last trading day as a discrete major S&P sector, and was the index’s biggest percentage gainer. McDonald’s Corp rose 2.8 percent after announcing it would hike its quarterly dividend by 15 percent.

In Bond Markets U.S. long-dated Treasury yields slipped on Friday, in tandem with those in Europe, as negotiations over Britain’s exit from the European Union appeared to stall. U.S. 2-year yields, however, remained unaffected by global factors as they hit a fresh 10-year high in the run-up to an expected rate increase at next week’s Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting. U.S. 10-year yields dipping to 3.068 percent at the close, from 3.078 percent on Thursday. U.S. 30-year yields were at 3.204 percent, down from Thursday’s 3.214 percent.