Resuming trading at the opening of the third week of March, the market's focus is still on the development of the global tariff war.
Last Friday, China increased imports of US goods to 125% in retaliation for President Donald Trump's imposition of the highest tariffs on the world's second largest economy.
China said that this was the last time and would not tolerate Trump's tariff increases, describing the US President's tariff strategy as a 'joke'.
This follows Trump's action of increasing tariffs on China to 145% and announcing a 90-day suspension of reciprocal tariffs on other countries.
However, over the weekend, Trump announced tariff exemptions on smartphones and computers from China and secured a national security trade investigation into the semiconductor sector.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Sunday that critical technology products from China would face different tariffs from now on.
The announcement of the tariff exemptions has opened up new opportunities for tech giants such as Apple, Dell and others who are heavily reliant on Chinese imports.
Turning to the economic data, the US producer inflation (PPI) report was the focus of attention in the last trading session of last week.
The March reading showed a decline following the decline in previously published consumer inflation data.
This week, the market will be looking at US retail sales data along with UK and Canadian inflation data.
In addition, the Canadian and European central banks will announce their latest interest rate decisions at their meetings this week.
