Investing.com - Shares in Asia were mostly weaker on Monday as investors kept a close eye on talks held annually between the U.S. and China and awaited remarks later int he day by Fed Chair Janet Yellen.
The Nikkei 225 dropped 0.75%, while bucked the trend, rising 0.94%.
The Shanghai Composite Index eased 0.09%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.29%.
The yuan rose against the dollar Monday morning after the People's Bank of China strengthened the fixing by 0.45% at 6.5497 compared with Friday's mid point of 6.5793.
Ahead of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the country would redouble its efforts to enact supply side reforms to help achieve its economic goals, adding that the two countries should strive to conclude a bilateral investment treaty "at an earliest date."
On Sunday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said overcapacity in China is an issue that has an enormous effect on global markets and needs to be addressed both for China's sake and for the sake of other economies.
Last week, U.S. stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Financials, Healthcare and Consumer Services sectors led shares lower.
At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.18%, while the S&P 500 index declined 0.29%, and the NASDAQ Composite index declined 0.58%.
The best performers of the session on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were Caterpillar Inc (NYSE:NYSE:CAT), which rose 1.90% or 1.40 points to trade at 75.04 at the close. Meanwhile, EI du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE:NYSE:DD) added 1.00% or 0.68 points to end at 68.78 and Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:NYSE:KO) was up 0.72% or 0.32 points to 45.04 in late trade.