Barring a few exceptions, it was a sea of red on Australia’s equity market as the S&P/ASX 200 retraced a large chunk of last week’s advance. With investors pulling back on risk after the U.S. and China fired fresh salvos in their trade dispute, the local benchmark ended down 1.3% at 6440.1.
The energy subindex was the biggest drag, falling 3.1% after crude weakened. The heavily-weighted Big four banks lost 0.7%-1.4%. Fortescue Metals sunk 5.3% as a consensus-beating annual profit was tempered by the outlook for iron ore prices. Gold miners were an exception, with Newcrest Mining up 4.6% and Evolution Mining closing 9% higher. 

U.S. stocks climbed intraday after President Trump said China wants to strike a trade deal, signaling a potential de-escalation in trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 169 points, or 0.7%, to 25798. The S&P 500 advanced 0.7%, and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.9%.
Stocks, bonds and currency markets have swung wildly over the past few days as traders have scrambled to make sense of the direction of U.S.-China trade talks. Stock futures had initially slid late Sunday after White House officials said Mr. Trump regretted not increasing tariffs on China further.
Some analysts said to view the latest flurry of trade-related comments with skepticism, noting both the U.S. and China have at several points suggested they were making progress on an agreement, only to back away from a deal.

Gold prices settled with a loss, giving up earlier gains, as President Donald Trump and Chinese officials both appeared to play down the recent escalation in trade tensions.
Gold for December delivery on Comex edged down by 40 cents, or 0.03%, to settle at $1,537.20 an ounce, after tapping an intraday high of $1,565. The decline follows a 1.9% climb on Friday to a more than six-year high of $1,537.60. September silver, meanwhile, held on to much of its earlier gains, settling 22.8 cents, or 1.3%, higher at $17.641 an ounce after tacking on 2.2% Friday.
Adding some pressure to dollar-denominated gold prices, the benchmark ICE U.S. Dollar Index moved up by 0.4% in Monday dealings, trading above 98 as gold futures settled.
Gold rose Friday after China announced it was imposing retaliatory tariffs on $75 billion in U.S. imports, drawing an angry response from President Donald Trump, who said he was ordering U.S. companies to look for an alternative to China. After markets closed Friday, Trump announced the U.S. would further raise tariffs on imports from China.
But early Monday, Trump, speaking on the sidelines of the Group of Seven meeting in France, said U.S. officials had received calls from Chinese negotiators and that the two sides would return to the table. However, the spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Geng Shuang, said he was “not aware of” such a phone call by China to the U.S., according to The Wall Street Journal.

WTI crude for October delivery edged down by 53 cents, or 1%, to settle at $53.64 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, posting a fourth straight session decline.
October Brent crude fell by 64 cents, or 1.1%, to $58.70 a barrel on ICE Europe.
Trump said U.S. officials had received calls from Chinese negotiators and that the two sides would return to the table.

The WSJ Dollar Index, which measures the U.S. currency against a basket of 16 others, rose to 91.27 from 90.90 Friday after Trump made comments about progress in trade talks with China.
Trade tensions have been clouding the U.S. economic outlook in recent weeks, prompting worries the Fed could cut rates faster, which tends to push the dollar lower.

The Stoxx Europe 600 slipped less than 0.1%, amid low trading volumes around the region. The French CAC 40 rose almost 0.5%, while the German DAX gained about 0.4%. U.K.
exchanges were closed for a holiday.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed 1.9% lower at 25680.33, alongside broadly lower Asian markets, as the U.S.-China trade conflict escalated over the weekend. Tech suppliers susceptible to the trade dispute lost heavily, with AAC Technologies and Techtronic Industries closing 5.4% and 3.4% lower, respectively.
Indian shares rose, outperforming other Asian markets, after the Modi government on Friday announced a number of measures to boost economic growth. The benchmark Sensex index closed 2.2% higher at 37494.12, led by financial stocks.
Singapore’s FTSE Straits Times Index closed 1.5% lower at 3065.33, in line with most Asian markets, as concerns about U.S.-China trade tensions grew. Index heavyweight DBS declined 1.2%, while banking peers UOB and OCBC shed 0.8% and 0.9%, respectively.
Malaysia’s FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index settled 0.6% lower at 1600.53, among the Southeast Asian markets that fared relatively better amid a selloff in Asia as the U.S.-China trade row intensified.