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(Bloomberg) — U.S. index futures fell, while contracts on Asian stocks were mixed as markets straggled into September following the worst month for global equities in more than three years. Oil retreated after surging the most since 1990 over the past three days.

Fresh from one of the most volatile trading periods since the global financial crisis, investors continued to eye China with the gyrations in its stock market and concerns over growth fueling last month’s selloff in risk assets. Private and government gauges of manufacturing in Asia’s largest economy are due Tuesday, while Australia — viewed as a bellwether for China given its commodity export links — will review interest rates.

“Relative to a week ago at least, when markets were effectively in meltdown mode, price action has settled down somewhat,” Philip Borkin, a senior economist in Auckland at ANZ Bank New Zealand Ltd., said in a client note. “However, one certainly gets the impression that despite this relative calm, markets remain on tenterhooks.”

Stock Futures

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.4 percent by 8:09 a.m. Tokyo time, after the index’s 0.8 percent drop Monday sealed its 6.3 percent drop in August, the worst monthly performance since May 2012. While futures on equity gauges in Hong Kong and those on the FTSE China A50 Index rose at least 0.4 percent in recent trading, Australian futures fell and contracts on Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average were mixed. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index opened down 0.2 percent.

Australia’s dollar held losses, trading at 71.17 U.S. cents early Tuesday with the country’s central bank expected by economists to keep interest rates at a record-low 2 percent. The yuan added 0.1 percent to 6.4416 per dollar in Hong Kong, after sinking 3.6 percent in August amid China’s surprise devaluation. The yen was at 121.22 a dollar after climbing 0.4 percent Monday to halt a four-day decline, while New Zealand’s currency rallied from near a six-year low after a better-than-expected terms of trade report.

Copper futures, another China indicator given the country is the world’s biggest consumer of industrial metals, slipped 0.4 percent to $2.3280 a pound in a second day of declines, while gold, which failed to fulfill its traditional role as a haven investment during last week’s ructions, was little changed at $1,135.58 an ounce following a 3.6 percent advance in August.
The Chinese government’s purchasing managers’ indexes for both the manufacturing and non-factory sectors are due Tuesday, along with the private Caixin China manufacturing PMI. Economists project that both factory gauges will indicate contraction. Manufacturing indexes for Japan to India, Europe and the U.S. are also scheduled, along with updates on consumer prices in Thailand and Indonesia.

Bull Market

Oil pulled back after surging into a bull market amid a three-day, 28 percent jump in prices that erased West Texas Intermediate crude’s August losses. The Energy Information Administration on Monday trimmed its U.S. production forecast by as much as 130,000 barrels a day for the first five months of the year as it switches to a new survey, the agency said on its website. That quelled concern over a supply glut, which had been fueled by signs Chinese demand may be slowing.
WTI dropped 3.2 percent Monday to $47.64 a barrel. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, responsible for about 40 percent of the world’s supply, also said in a monthly publication that it is willing to talk about output issues, “but this has to be on a level playing field.”

Australian government debt tracked a retreat in U.S. Treasuries, with yields on notes due in a decade up three basis points, or 0.03 percentage point, to 2.69 percent. Rates on similar maturity Treasuries rose four basis points Monday to 2.22 percent.

–With assistance from Jeremy Herron in New York.

To contact the reporter on this story: Emma O’Brien in Wellington at eobrien6@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Emma O’Brien at eobrien6@bloomberg.net John McCluskey