Investors nudged stocks higher in Europe as they braced themselves for another round of earnings and started pondering what U.S. Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke might signal when he meets the press.
U.S. stock futures rose, with the Dow up 0.2 percent at 12,453 and the Standard & Poor's up 0.4 per cent at 1,335.5. Bellwethers such as Amazon.com Inc., Ford Motor Co., United Parcel Service Inc. and 3M Co. report earnings on Tuesday.
Mr. Bernanke will appear at his first press conference after a monetary policymaking meeting on Wednesday, but the markets are already focused on what he might say about the Fed's plans to end its $600-billion (U.S.) program to expand money supply through its bond purchase program.
In fact, news that Greece's budget deficit rose to 10.5 per cent of GDP, well above the 9.6 forecast caused barely a flutter as investors across Europe and parts of Asia returned to trading after a four-day break.
Germany's Dax rose 0.4 percent to 7327.12. The FTSE 100 index in London was up 0.4 percent at 6042.88, while France's CAC-40 was up 0.4 percent at 4,038.61.
The euro hit a 16-month high against the dollar, amid expectations that the Fed will keep policy accommodative. It also got a boost from a good response to a sale of short-term debt by Spain.
Copper fell 2 per cent as investors returning from the Easter long weekend digested data showing a 43 per cent plunge in China's imports of refined copper because of high inventories and strong international prices.
Silver, which had surged as much as 8 per cent on Monday, pulled back sharply when a failure to pierce the record high from 1980 triggered technical selling amid record volume in U.S. futures. Spot silver fell nearly 5 per cent on Tuesday.
U.S. crude futures were trading 10 cents up at $112.38 a barrel, having dropped by more than $1. On Monday, U.S. crude had hit $113.48, the highest since September 2008.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index was down 1.1 percent to 9,568.27, with investors unloading blue chip shares ahead of what is expected to be a punishing earnings season. South Korea's Kospi was down 0.6 percent to 2,204.51, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.1 percent to 23,865.91.
Sonali Verma