Asian shares hit six-week lows as investors bought into traditionally safe investments, including gold, the yen and low-risk government debt.
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“History will tell us that if the economic impact is limited – and I think it will be – that markets will quickly recover and go on to focus on other things”, Oliver, who is also head of strategy at the A$156 billion ($111 billion) wealth management firm.
News of the attacks by gunmen and bombers that killed 132 people in the French capital came after USA markets closed.
French financial markets will be open as usual on Monday, stock and derivatives exchange Euronext said on Saturday.
The pan- European FTSEurofirst 300 index opened lower, dragged down by travel and leisure stocks, before turning positive as miners and energy stocks rose.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng China Enterprises Index declined 2 percent. The euro fell 0.4 percent to $1.0735, having gained 0.3 percent last week.
Japan’s economy, the world’s number three in size, shrank 0.2 percent in the July-September quarter, official data showed Monday, marking a second straight quarterly decline, or technical recession.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index slid 0.8% and New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index fell 0.7%.
A recent Reuters poll of more than 80 leading economists found a 70 percent chance the USA central bank would raise its short-term lending rate at its final meeting of the year on December 15-16.
The widely tracked CBOE volatility index or “fear gauge” was at its highest level since October 2. But stocks on Wall Street climbed as European shares reversed early losses and the yen later fell. The CSI300 index of the largest-listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen rose 0.5 percent while the Shanghai Composite gained 0.7 percent. Ten-year German yields, the benchmark for euro zone borrowing costs, fell 1.2 basis points to 0.55 percent. Cathay Pacific (293-HK) retreated 2.3 percent in Hong Kong.
S&P 500 futures were down 0.7 percent, after shedding about 1 percent in light volume in late trading on Friday.
The euro was down about 0.3 percent at $1.0743, after logging a flat performance last week.
The impact of the violence on the eurozone fuelled a fall in the single currency, which is already under pressure from expectations the European Central Bank will ramp up its stimulus programme to boost growth. “We may thus see a knee-jerk reaction in asset markets today”, says Cynthia Jane Kalasopatan of the Singapore Treasury Division at Mizuho Bank.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 cascaded downward 0.8 percent to 19,443.68 in morning trading.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was up slightly at 99.212, just off a seven-month high.
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Markets in the Middle East, which trade on Sunday, were hit hard, though part of that decline was due to last week’s drop in oil prices. Saudi Arabia’s stock index hit a 35-month low on Sunday while stocks in Dubai and Egypt hit their lowest of the year. The Jakarta Stock Price Index rebounded 5.9% in the next week and had wiped off its losses in less than a month. Traders said the rise was largely a matter of sentiment, with a premium being factored in after French strikes in Syria.
