Investing.com - Asian equities were mostly lower in morning trade on Monday on reports that U.S. President Donald Trump is likely to announce new tariffs on about $200 billion on Chinese imports as early as later today.
In the U.S., the S&P 500 saw a slight gain to close at 2,904.98 on Friday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 8.68 points and the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.1%.
A senior administration official told Reuters on Saturday that the announcement is likely to come this week despite Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's attempts to restart trade talks with China.
The tariff level will probably be about 10%, the Wall Street Journal reported, quoting people familiar with the matter. This is below the 25% the administration said it was considering for this possible round of tariffs.
The decision came despite a Treasury invitation last week to senior Chinese officials, including Vice Premier Liu He, for more talks to try to resolve trade differences between the world\'s two largest economies.
China’s Shanghai Composite and the Shenzhen Component traded 1.0% and 0.9% lower respectively by 9:40PM ET (01:40 GMT).
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index is trading as normal today and was down 1.8% as the Hong Kong Observatory lowered the storm warning signal to 3 from 8 after Typhoon Mangkhut lost power as it made landfall in China.
Elsewhere, South Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.8% with industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics (KS:005930) sliding by 0.9%.
Down under, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 were little changed at 6166.6 in morning trade. Japan’s Nikkei 225 is closed for a holiday.
Looking ahead, the U.S. Commerce Department is set to publish a report on building permits and housing starts for August at on Wednesday.
The data is expected to show that permits dipped 0.1% slightly to 1.310 million last month, while housing starts are forecast to show a gain of 5.8% to 1.240 million.