Asian shares were lower on Monday as investors eye the international backlash against U.S. President Donald Trump's immigration policy, which has added pressure on the dollar.
The Nikkei 225 Index gave back 98.55 points, or 0.5%, to 19,368.85, after data showed that December retail sales rose 0.6% from the previous year, weaker than an expected 1.3% increase,
Several countries have criticized President Trump's latest executive order to block refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States for a four-month period. Several attorney generals from California, New York, Washington D.C. and 13 other states have pledged to fight the "unconstitutional" move.
Australian markets were seeing broad based losses across all sub-indexes except for its gold sub-index, which was up 1.2%
Gold miner Newcrest Mining shares were up 1.3% at A$21.45 a share, after it released its production report for the December quarter.
Other Australian gold miners were in the green, with Evolution Mining up 1.4% at A$2.15 per share and Alacer Gold higher by 2.6% at A$2.39.
Australian insurer QBE Insurance was up 0.2% at A$12.35 after news that it was approached by Allianz for a potential takeover deal although no acquisition price has been proposed to QBE as of yet.
In the broader currency market, the yen strengthened 0.3% against the U.S. dollar at 114.34, while the Australian dollar was trading at $0.755.
In other markets
Markets in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taiwan, Singapore and Korea were shuttered for holiday
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 subtracted 48.7 points, or 0.7%, to 7,085.56
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 52.48 points, or 0.8%, to 5,661.52
