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Hong Kong shares fell on Monday and the Australian dollar slid after China rejected US calls for new trade talks.
China over the weekend declined an invitation to explore a fifth round of trade talks with the United States. President Donald Trump last week decided to impose a 10 percent tariff on about 200 billion dollars of Chinese imports as of Monday, a decision that has further worsened relations with Beijing.
Vice Premier Wang Shouwen's visit to Washington to explore new talks between Deputy Prime Minister Liu He and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, scheduled for late last week, has been postponed Announces rates.
Robert Carnell, economist at ING, suggested that the Chinese authorities await the outcome of the mid-term US elections. "With generic polls favoring Democrats, they may think that the business environment will be less hostile after November 6," he said. "In my opinion, it's far from certain. A mediocre result for President Trump in mid-term could rather encourage him to double a policy that has already earned him some votes.
Hong Kong shares fell by 1.3%, financials by 1.4% and the technology sector by 2.4%. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index of China's largest companies listed in Hong Kong fell 1.9%.
In Australia, the S & P / ASX200 index fell 0.1%, with the materials and financials sectors both down 0.2%.
Trade concerns also weighed on the Australian dollar, considered vulnerable to the US-China trade war, weakening by 0.3% to 0.727 dollar. The offshore renminbi was 0.3% to 6.866 RMB against the dollar while its counterpart on land was not trading.
Most of the Asia-Pacific region was on holiday Monday, with the Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Taiwanese markets all closed.
