South Korea's finance minister said the government will use expanded fiscal policy space to fund future investments.

By the morning-session close, China's main futures contracts were mostly lower. Shanghai silver slid nearly 7%, platinum fell over 5% and Shanghai gold dropped almost 4%. Coking coal declined more than 3%; LPG and palladium were down about 3%. No.20 rubber and Shanghai nickel lost over 2%. On the upside, container freight to Europe and alumina rose over 3%, industrial silicon gained more than 2%, caustic soda, ferrosilicon and eggs were up over 1%, while manganese silicon and live hogs rose about 1%.

A-shares opened: Shanghai Composite down 0.62%, Shenzhen Composite Index down 1.35%, ChiNext down 1.62%. CRO and tax-refund-store concepts led gains; precious metals, CPO and storage-chip sectors pulled back.