REUTERS/Yuya Shino
An employee of a foreign exchange trading company works in front of monitors displaying the Japanese yen's exchange rate against the U.S. dollar (R), and the Japanese yen's exchange rate against Euro in Tokyo December 19, 2013.
Japan's Nikkei opened down 0.3%.
Korea's Kospi and New Zealand's 50 Gross Index were both off 0.05%.
Sunday evening saw bad news crop up across the world: The U.S. has ordered embassy workers out of Iraq, Russia and Ukraine failed to reach a gas deal, and Israel and Gaza militants are back at it. As previously reported, oil and natural gas futures both popped in Sunday trading.
In breaking news, American medical devices firm Medtronic said it is buying Covidien in a $43 billion blockbuster deal, and will move the firm's headquarters to Ireland.
The Fed will meet this week to give us new dot-plots about showing where its members think the economy is going - click here to read Sam Ro's preview »