An investor watches a board showing stock information at a brokerage office in Beijing, China October 8, 2018.
Hong Kong rose 0.32 percent, Australia 0.2 percent and Korea 0.25 percent but Chinese blue chips bucked the trend, falling 0.26 percent. There are also signs that Chinese growth is slowing and so traders are closely watching purchasing manager surveys for manufacturing and services, which are both due this week.
However, in his prepared remarks, Powell offered no indication on cutting asset purchases beyond saying it could be "this year". The dollar index which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies was fairly steady at a two-week low, having fallen 0.4 percent after Powell's remarks. Investors in China, in contrast, are watching data this week to see whether they indicate policymakers are more likely to step up easing measures.Focus on oil prices