After struggling in early trade, on the......>

STOCKS: After struggling in early trade, on the back of a negative lead from

Wall St. & a heavy start for U.S. equity index futures, the majority of the

major Asia-Pacific benchmarks managed to recover, aided by a positive start for

Chinese equities owing to constructive trade-related remarks from PBoC Governor

Yi over the weekend. This outweighed slowing money supply/credit data, which the

Bank attributed to seasonal factors, as well as disappointing Chinese inflation

data, also released over the weekend.

- The ASX 200 underperformed, with the energy and consumer-dependent sectors

providing the most weight.

- Nikkei 225 +0.5%, Hang Seng +0.7%, CSI 300 +1.4%, ASX 200 -0.4%.

- U.S. equity index futures were more reluctant to bounce. Focus on Monday will

fall on Boeing, after China ordered its airlines to suspend their Boeing Co 737

MAX operations in the wake of a crash of one of the models in Ethiopia.

- S&P 500 +1, DJIA -93, NASDAQ +4.