Investors will also be looking for clues about Deutsche Bank's next steps when Germany, Europe's biggest economy, returns to work after a Monday holiday to celebrate the nation's reunification.

Deutsche's woes, alongside a grilling of Wells Fargo's chief executive by USA lawmakers amid a call for the bank to be broken down due to a scandal over its opening of client accounts without agreement, helped push the S&P; bank index down 1.6 percent.

The broad USA stock market is coming off a relatively strong third-quarter, which saw the Dow gain 2.1%, the S&P; 500 rally 3.3% and the Nasdaq surge 9.7%.

Also on Wall Street's radar today is the British pound, which tumbled 1% to a three-month low earlier following comments from British Prime Minister Theresa May's comments this weekend that she would officially seek the start of Britain's exit from the European Union by the end of the first quarter of 2017. Many global companies are listed on the FTSE index, and their earnings tend to benefit when the pound weakens. German markets are closed for a holiday. That means traders have been able to park their worries about Deutsche Bank.

Sticking with banks, Reuters reported that Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Nomura and Deutsche Bank have been ordered to stand trial in Milan over alleged financial crimes.

A rally in Deutsche Bank shares has lost some steam as investors face continued uncertainty about how big a USA penalty the bank will receive.

Asian stocks were mostly higher Monday, with Chinese and South Korean trading closed, as investors weighed the prospects of a further USA interest rate hike and a report on business sentiment out of Japan.

Jay Z Partners With Weinstein Company On Kalief Browder Docuseries
Titled Time: The Kalief Browder Story, the series is set to debut on Spike in January of 2017. He was released in 2013 after his case was dismissed due to so many trial postponements.

"It looks like we have one of those choppy, directionless days unless we get something from Deutsche Bank", said Matthew Tuttle, chief investment officer at Tuttle Tactical Management in Riverside, Connecticut.

FED OUTLOOK: The latest US data that gave investors clues about the timing of the Federal Reserve's rate hike was a manufacturing index.

JAPAN PRICES: Companies cut their outlook for inflation to 0.6 percent over the next year, the fifth reduction in a row, the Bank of Japan's quarterly Tankan business sentiment survey showed, according to Kyodo News.

KEEPING SCORE: Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose 0.8 percent to 16,735.65 as the weaker yen boosted shares of the country's big export manufacturers.

ENERGY: Oil prices continued to rally in the wake of last week's agreement by the members of the OPEC cartel to trim production.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 25 cents to $47.99 a barrel, while brent crude, the worldwide standard, slipped 28 cents to $49.91 a barrel in London. The euro fell to $1.1209 from $1.1237 and the dollar rose to 101.55 yen from 101.41 yen.