SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific looked set for a negative start on Monday, ahead of the release of a private survey on China’s service sector activity for May.

Futures indicated a lower open for Japanese stocks. The Nikkei futures contract in Chicago was at 27,585 while its counterpart in Osaka was at 27,570 — lower than the Nikkei 225’sLast close: 27,761.57

Australian stocks were also on the verge of falling at the open with the SPI futures contract trading at 7,210 against the S&P/ASX 200’sLast close: 7,238.80

South Korea’s markets will be closed Mondays due to a holiday.

Caixin Services Purchasing managers’ index will be published at 9:00 a.m. HK/SIN tomorrow. This release follows last week’s official PMI print for non-manufacturing of 47.8 in May. While this is an improvement on April’s 41.9, it still falls below the 50 threshold that distinguishes expansion and contraction.

The PMI readings represent month-on–month growth or contraction.

It U.S. dollar indexFollowing a recent rise in levels from below 101,, the greenback was at 102.133.

It Japanese yenThe dollar traded at 130.83 dollars, which is weaker than the levels of below 128 last week. The Australian dollarAfter falling from $0.725 to $0.721 late last week, it was $0.721 at the time.