On Monday shares in Tokyo inched higher, while Shanghai surged as investors awaited the latest Federal Reserve views on rates this week.
The Shanghai Composite rose 1.82%, while the Nikkei 225 edged up 0.19%.
This week, investors will be focusing their attention on
Wednesday’s Federal Reserve policy statement to see if it would drop its
reference to being patient before raising rates.
Central bank meetings in Japan and Switzerland will also be eyed.
Calendar
On Monday, Switzerland is to release data on producer prices and retail sales.
Germany's Bundesbank is to publish its monthly report.
Canada is to publish data on foreign securities purchases later Monday.
The U.S. is to produce reports on industrial production and manufacturing activity in the New York region, as well as private sector data on the housing market.
Last week
Last week, U.S. stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Basic Materials, Utilities and Industrials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.82%, while the S&P 500 index fell 0.61%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.44%.
As Bloomberg has reported, West Texas Intermediate crude lost 2.2 percent to $43.87 a barrel after sinking 4.7 percent on Friday, and capping a weekly plunge of 9.6 percent, its steepest drop this year.
A surplus in U.S. crude inventories may soon strain the country’s storage capacity, renewing the slump in oil prices, the International Energy Agency said Friday. The largest oil-storage hub in the U.S., located in Cushing, Oklahoma, is 70 percent full, the agency said.
