European shares are seen opening higher on Tuesday after Greece's prime minister said he saw significant progress in the debt-swap talks with private creditors.
Having said that, Asian markets are swinging between gains and losses as concerns over surging borrowing costs in Portugal to a euro-era record partly offset positive sentiment generated by forecast-beating data on Japan's industrial production.
Meanwhile, the French government slashed its 2012 growth forecast to 0.5 percent from the 1 percent estimated earlier taking into account the deterioration of the economic situation. With the introduction of 0.1 percent tax on financial transactions expected to generate EUR 500 million this year, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said the government would not resort to new austerity measures to meet deficit targets.
During the EU summit on Monday, Members of the European Union, except the United Kingdom and Czech Republic, have agreed to sign up for the new fiscal compact, a treaty designed to achieve stability and convergence in the Economic and Monetary Union. The treaty introduces more automatic sanctions and stricter surveillance within the euro area, in particular by introducing a balanced budget rule.
On the macroeconomic front, British consumer confidence climbed to its highest level in seven months in January despite concerns over the economy sliding into a recession, a survey by research group GfK NOP showed. The consumer confidence index improved to -29 in January from -33 in December. The January reading was the highest since June 2011
In corporate news, German crane manufacturer Demag Cranes and Terex Germany GmbH & Co. KG, an indirect wholly-owned unit of Terex Corp. entered into a domination and profit and loss transfer agreement.
Electronic payment company Wirecard AG said it expects the European e-commerce market to grow about 11 percent in 2012, based on forecasts by various individual market research institutions.
After reports suggested last week that steel giant ThyssenKrupp was having discussions to sell its stainless-steel business to Outokumpu Oyj, the Wall street Journal reported ,citing a person familiar with the matter, that the former agreed to sell the steel business for about EUR 2.7 billion or $3.6 billion.
Schulman Inc. announced that it entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Elian SAS, a French portfolio company of British Vita Plc, for approximately Euro 48 million or $63 million in cash based on current exchange rates.
European markets lost ground on Monday, dragged down by banks, as Greece failed to reach a concrete deal with creditors before the EU summit and worries intensified that Portugal might need a second bailout. France's CAC 40 lost 1.6 percent, the German DAX fell a percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 shed 1.1 percent.
U.S. stocks recouped early losses to finish on a flat note overnight, with renewed concerns about the financial situation in Europe weighing on sentiment. Traders also reacted negatively to a report from the U.S. Commerce Department which showed consumer spending came to a standstill in December after rising 0.1 percent the month before. The Dow edged down 0.1 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq slipped 0.2 percent and the S&P 500 eased 0.3 percent.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com