We consider the local discrepancy of a symmetrized version of Hammersley type point sets in the unit square. As a measure for the irregularity of distribution we study the norm of the local discrepancy in Besov spaces with dominating mixed smoothness. It is known that for Hammersley type points this norm has the best possible rate provided that the smoothness parameter of the Besov space is nonnegative. While these point sets fail to achieve the same for negative smoothness, we will prove in

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... s note that the symmetrized versions overcome this defect. We conclude with some consequences on discrepancy in further function spaces with dominating mixed smoothness and on numerical integration based on quasi-Monte Carlo rules.