World stocks were subdued on Thursday ahead of a key summit seen as perhaps the
last chance for European leaders to cauterize a crippling debt crisis
before it drags the region into a potentially severe recession.
Benchmark oil rose above $100 per barrel while the dollar fell against the euro and the yen.
FULL COVERAGE: Global financial crisis European shares opened higher on hopes that
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy would succeed in drumming up
support for a debt crisis plan from key conservative European politicians at a meeting in Marseille, France before moving on to Brussels for a crucial European Union summit.
Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.6 per cent to 5,582.63. Germany's DAX jumped 1.1 per cent to 6,061.80 and France's CAC-40 was 0.9 per cent higher at 3,205.60.
Will not invest forex to bail out EU: China Wall Street appeared headed for a mixed opening. Dow Jones industrial futures rose marginally to 12,218 while S&P 500 futures were down less than 0.1 per cent at 1,263.50.
Stocks endured a minor drubbing in Asia earlier in the day. Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.7 per cent to 8,664.58, dragged down by weaker-than-expected machinery orders. South Korea's Kospi lost 0.4 per cent to 1,912.39 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.7 per cent to 19,107.81.
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT EURO DEBT CRISIS Benchmarks in Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and India also fell. But mainland Chinese shares rose, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.1 per cent to 2,329.82 after losing more than 1 per cent earlier in the day to approach an intraday low for the year. The Shenzhen Composite Index gained 0.1 per cent to 970.95.
Just hours before the summit of European leaders was to open in Brussels, doubts were surfacing that a lasting solution to the two-year-old crisis would be reached. Failure risks causing a breakup of the euro, a shock that could cause a deep recession in Europe and spread through the world economy.
Urgency was added to the situation Wednesday when ratings agency
Standard & Poor's threatened to downgrade the bonds of all EU countries because their economies were intricately linked with the 17 nations that use the euro.
One point of friction has surfaced over a proposal by France's Sarkozy and Germany's Merkel, leaders of the two economic powerhouses among the 17 nations that use the euro. They are demanding far-reaching changes to the treaty governing the European Union to enforce fiscal discipline among its members.
That proposal is being met with resistance by the European Council, an institution that defines the priorities of the entire 27-nation EU. Its president, Herman Van Rompuy, favors going a simpler route - amending existing rules that apply to the 17 euro countries to avoid the trickier step of requiring every country to approve the new treaty.
The disagreement has soured hopes for an immediate solution to the crisis.
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