Asia's stock markets struck a cautious tone on Monday as traders looked ahead to a week of corporate earnings and catch-up US data with the focus on the interest rate outlook and the fate of a frothy rally in artificial intelligence stocks.

In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index opened trading at the start of the week down 130 points, or 0.49 percent, to 26,441.

On the mainland, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index edged back 0.05 percent to open at 3,988 while the Shenzhen Component Index was 0.12 percent lower at 13,200 and the ChiNext Index, tracking China's Nasdaq-style board of growth enterprises, was down 0.46 percent at 3,097.

Further afield, Japanese tourism-related shares plunged after China warned its citizens against travel to its North Asian neighbour following a widening diplomatic rift over Taiwan.

Isetan Mitsukoshi, a department store operator with sizeable sales to Chinese visitors, sank 11.4 percent, poised for the biggest drop in more than a year.

Tokyo Disneyland operator Oriental Land lost 5.1 percent, while Japan Airlines shed 3.9 percent.

Over in Seoul, by contrast, shares of South Korean tour agency Lotte Tour Development rose 8.8 percent as the country is expected to reap the benefits of a diversion of mainland tourist flows as a result of the warning.

Also notable were gains for shares of Samsung, SK Hynix and US chipmakers, which rallied sharply on news of price hikes that underline how the boom in artificial intelligence has stoked intense demand for chip units specifically designed for AI tasks as well as the memory chips used in those units.

Micron Technology climbed four percent.

In Monday morning trade, Samsung's shares advanced three percent and SK Hynix surged six percent.

All three stocks were regaining ground after earlier falls on concerns about stretched AI valuations.

Samsung Electronics this month raised prices of certain memory chips – now in short supply due to the global race to build AI data centres – by as much as 60 percent compared to September, two people with knowledge of the hikes said.

The price hike follows a decision by Samsung, the world's biggest memory chipmaker, to delay a formal announcement of pricing for supply contracts in October, the people said, adding that pricing details are typically announced each month.

Soaring prices for these memory chips, which are mainly used in servers, are likely to add to stress for big companies building out data infrastructure.

They also threaten to increase the costs of other products like smartphones and computers in which they are also used.

Many of the largest server makers and data centre builders are "now accepting that they won't get nearly enough product. The price premiums being paid are extreme", said Tobey Gonnerman, president of semiconductor distributor Fusion Worldwide.

The South Korean firm's contract prices for 32 gigabyte DDR5 memory chip modules jumped to US$239 in November, up from US$149 in September, he said. (Reuters/Xinhua)