The Chinese stock markets went down on Monday. Investors mainly kept an eye on developments regarding the trade dispute between the United States and China. The Chinese trade minister announced last weekend that the two countries had “constructive” talks in Washington last week. In Japan, investors had a day off.

China and the US will have trade talks again in the coming weeks. Wall Street was under pressure last Friday after cancellation a visit from a Chinese delegation to US agricultural states. Beijing had just promised to buy more American agricultural products. US President Donald Trump, in turn, said that he would only have to settle for a full trade deal with China and that the country should do more than just buy more agricultural products.

The stock market in Shanghai fell 1.4 percent in the meantime and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong lost 0.8 percent. In Hong Kong the pro-democratic protest again led to fierce confrontations with the police last weekend. Companies related to the Chinese conglomerate Fosun, major shareholder of Thomas Cook, were under pressure. Fosun regretted that it was not possible to save the ailing British travel company. Fosun Tourism fell 5.5 percent and Fosun International fell 1 percent.

The South Korean Kospi was almost flat. The All Ordinaries in Sydney increased 0.4 percent. The Australian oil company Beach Energy climbed 2.3 percent after reports that the repair work on the damaged oil facilities of Saudi Aramco could take much longer than the Saudi state oil company claims.