Asian Markets Begin Trading Week on Sour Note

European markets are mostly higher Monday, hours after Asian indexes went into freefall over growing pessimism about a quick post-pandemic economic recovery.

The FTSE index in London is up 0.2%, the CAC-40 in Paris is basically unchanged, and the DAX in Frankfurt is 0.3% higher.

Earlier Tuesday, the Nikkei in Tokyo lost 2.3% at the closing bell, with the Hang Seng in Hong down one percent and Shanghai's Composite index down 0.6%.

The S&P/ASX index in Sydney finished down 1.6%, Seoul's KOSPI index lost 1.9%, and Taiwan's TSEC is down one percent. Mumbai's Sensex is 0.6% lower in late afternoon trading.

Oil markets have recovered after a slow start Monday. U.S. crude oil is selling at $38.49 per barrel, pulling even percentage wise, while Brent crude, the international standard, is selling at $40.86 per barrel, down 0.3%.

Financial markets had begun a slow but steady recovery as governments around the world were beginning to reopen their economies after easing restrictions imposed to blunt the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. But U.S. markets sustained major losses Friday due to a dramatic surge of new infections across the country.

The Dow Jones and S&P 500 indices are trending higher in futures trading, while the Nasdaq is in negative territory ahead of Wall Street's opening bell.