SINGAPORE – Oil was slightly higher, while stocks lacked direction on Monday.
Brent crude futures were last up 0.4 percent at $74.14 having earlier drifted as high as $74.80. MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped to a three-week low before floating around either side of flat.
Japan's Nikkei bounced around, too, and was last trading flat. The safe-haven yen rose marginally, helped by hints at possible government intervention to support it and by a summary showing a central bank board member pushed in June for a debate on its yield curve control policy.
S&P 500 and European futures rose 0.3 percent.
The risk-sensitive Australian dollar was steady at $0.6679. The euro nursed last week's modest drop at $1.0906 and sterling held at $1.2728.
"I don't think the market can get its head around working out if there are implications," said Ray Attrill, head of foreign exchange strategy at National Australia Bank in Sydney.
The Japanese yen, which has been on a slide as global interest rate expectations rise and Japan's central bank stays steadfastly dovish, bounced as much as 0.3 percent to 143.27 per dollar, before steadying back to 143.51.
Japan's top currency diplomat Masato Kanda said on Monday authorities will respond to any excessive moves and did not rule out intervening, as happened last year. The Bank of Japan should also discuss revising its yield curve control policy at an early stage, a board member was quoted as saying at a June policy meeting, a summary of opinions released on Monday showed.