Asia set to open lower; Clinton vs Trump debate, OPEC meeting in focus

Australia's SPI futures traded at 5,396, lower than the ASX 200's last close at 5,431.29.

Nikkei futures in Chicago traded at 16,640, while Osaka futures were at 16,600. The Japanese benchmark index closed the Friday session at 16,754.02.

U.S. presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are set to go head-to-head in their first debate on Monday in the U.S. Recent polls have shown the two candidates are neck and neck in their popularity ahead of the November election.
"A 'good' performance by Trump could see a rally in safe haven assets, Japanese government bonds/yen, gold, German bunds.

In the currency market, the dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, last traded at 95.477.

This was compared to levels above 96.00 the dollar had briefly touched in the previous week before the U.S. Federal Reserve opted to keep its monetary policy unchanged.
The Japanese yen traded at 101.01 versus the dollar as of 6:38 a.m. HK/SIN, relatively weaker than the levels near 100.00 it touched late last week. The Australian dollar traded at $0.7612 early morning Monday.

Read more:

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