NEW YORK ? Wall Street is set to open higher Wednesday after two successful Italian bond auctions raised hopes that Italy will be able to roll over billions of euros of its debt this year.
Dow futures rose 0.2 percent at 12,244, while S&P 500 futures moved up 0.3 percent to 1,263.40. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.2 percent to 2,290.75.
The Bank of Italy said the average yield on its euro9 billion ($11.8 billion) six-month offering was 3.251 percent, half the 6.504 percent rate it had to pay at the equivalent auction last month. In an auction of two-year bills, the yield fell to 4.853 percent from 7.814 percent last month.
The news pushed up stock prices across Europe. The euro was flat at $1.3069.
In France, the CAC-40 rose 0.5 percent to 3,119, while Germany's DAX was up 0.1 percent at 5,893. The FTSE index of leading British shares gained 0.6 percent at 5,546.
Despite those gains, significant uncertainty remains for the countries that use the euro. The European Central Bank reported that the continent's banks parked a record euro452.00 ($590.72) billion overnight at the bank Tuesday, surpassing the previous record of euro411.80 billion set Monday.
Those figures reflect the distrust that still reigns among banks and indicates that instead of lending to one another, banks would prefer to hold money at low interest rates at the ECB. However, levels also rise and fall for technical reasons as banks adjust their liquidity requirements.
It also reflects a huge infusion of cheap three-year loans to banks from the ECB, carried out last week in an attempt to inoculate the system against the debt crisis.
In Asia, stocks fell overnight, mostly because of concerns about the broader economy.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.2 percent to close at 8,423.62 after news that its industrial output dropped a seasonally adjusted 2.6 percent last month ? the first decline in two months.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.6 percent to 18,518.67, while South Korea's Kospi lost 0.9 percent at1,825.12.
There are also concerns about a slowdown in China's economy.
The Shanghai Composite Index reversed course after early losses, rising 0.2 percent to 2,170.01. But the smaller Shenzhen Composite Index sank 0.5 percent to 849.76.
Benchmark crude oil fell 40 cents to $100.94 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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