Trump, who sued the WSJ and its owners including Rupert Murdoch for at least $10 billion on Friday over the newspaper's report on a 2003 birthday greeting from Trump to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, denied the latest WSJ report on Bessent too.

Investors will be keeping a close watch on the People’s Bank of China’s decision on its 1-year and 5-year loan prime rates for July, expected later in the day.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was flat, while South Korean stocks added 0.4%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures both edged up 0.1%, and are already at record highs in anticipation of more solid earnings reports.

Yen gained further strength as investors increased bets on a Bank of Japan interest rate hike in the near term. The greenback, on the other hand, was last down 0.45% at $98.04 after reports last week suggested that U.S. President Donald Trump was looking to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.