 "A man walks past a display of the Nikkei average and other market indices outside a brokerage in Tokyo. Photo: Reuters")
Asian stocks eked out gains but lacked clear direction on Monday after Wall Street's sluggish performance late last week, while the dollar hit a near nine-month high as comments from a US Federal Reserve official boosted bets of a rate hike by year-end.
Spreadbetters expected Britain's FTSE, Germany's DAX and France's CAC to open slightly higher.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched up 0.2 per cent.
South Korea's Kospi gained 0.4 per cent. Australian stocks lost 0.5 per cent, hurt by a decline in energy shares.
Japan's Nikkei moved in a tight range and was last up 0.2 per cent.
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"There are few investors who want to chase the market higher until they see more news from overseas, especially those regarding a US rate hike," said Yutaka Miura, senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo.
Shanghai outperformed, rising over one per cent as energy and raw material stocks jumped on indications that government measures to slash production capacity had shown signs of some success.
The optimism spread to Hong Kong, but gains in the Hang Sang were limited by concerns over continued yuan weakness, as well as a possible US rate hike.
On Friday in Wall Street, the S&P 500 and the Dow were little changed and the Nasdaq advanced as a record day for Microsoft and earnings from McDonald's helped offset a fall in energy and healthcare shares.
"It will be something of a hiatus week, given that next week brings the Bank of Japan, Fed and Bank of England meetings... However there is a heavily back-loaded run of data in the US, Japan and Eurozone, and there will be a deluge of US and indeed European and Asian corporate earnings," wrote Marc Ostwald, strategist at ADM Investor Services International.
Global markets are bracing for a slew of data this week, including consumer price data from Japan and some Eurozone countries, third quarter US gross domestic product and a number of purchasing managers' index data from developed economies.
In currencies, the dollar index was up 0.1 per cent at 98.780 after touching 98.846, its highest since February 3.
The US currency received a boost last week as the euro slid after the European Central Bank doused talk it was contemplating tapering its monetary easing.
The dollar was also supported by hawkish comments from Fed officials, including New York Fed President William Dudley and higher expectations that Hillary Clinton will win the US presidential election, which have increased bets that the Fed will raise rates in December.
The dollar was steady at 103.905 yen. The euro slipped 0.2 per cent to $1.0869 after falling on Friday to $1.0859, its lowest since March 10.
The Australian dollar was steady at $0.7614 .
The offshore Chinese yuan hit a new six-year low against a broadly stronger dollar.
"The PBOC (People's Bank of China) is seen strategically managing the yuan's weakness," said Jeong My-young, Samsung Futures research head in Seoul.
Crude oil prices slipped on concerns supply will outweigh demand, with US crude down 0.6 per cent at $50.55 a barrel.
The contracts had risen about 0.8 per cent on Friday on hopes that Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would reach a price agreement, but worries of oversupply have been a persistent drag on the market.
But oil fell Monday after Iraq said it wanted to be exempt from any deal by OPEC to cut production. Latest data also showed that US oil rig count posted the first double-digit rise since August, weighing on the market.
Brent crude was down 0.5 per cent at $51.54 a barrel.
