Before the bell: European stocks, U.S. futures rise

European stocks saw mild gains, U.S. stock futures advanced, but Asian markets mostly fell as the Eurozone debt crisis returned to the fore on Thursday morning.

A solid Spanish bond auction sold twice the targeted amount of debt, €9.98 billion (US$12.7 billion), against a target of €5 billion. In a separate auction, Italy sold €12 billion in 12-month and flexible T-bills, paying a sharply lower average yield of 2.735 per cent on the 12-month T-bills than the 5.952 per cent a month ago. However, Greece remains a serious concern.

Stateside, the release of the U.S. Federal Reserve's Beige Book on Wednesday showed the American economy is improving thanks to a few factors including strong consumer spending in late 2011.

The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 0.5 per cent to 251.27. The FTSE 100 fell 0.2 per cent at 5659.96, Frankfurt's DAX gained 0.3 per cent to 6167.58 and Paris's CAC-40 was higher by 0.5 per cent at 3220.03. The euro presently buys US$1.2712.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average slumped 0.7 per cent, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 0.2 per cent while South Korea's Kospi Composite Index rose 1 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.3 per cent and China's Shanghai Composite Index was flat.

On Wall Street, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 46 points to 12434. Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures rose 4.7 points to 1292.90, while Nasdaq 100 futures added 11.75 points to 2378.75.

Here at home, the S&P/TSX Composite Index declined 9.71 points to 12,260.94 due mainly to energy sector data showing higher inventories pushed crude down US$1.37 to $100.87 a barrel. The TSX Venture Exchange dipped 11.11 points to 1,531.12. The Canadian dollar was down 0.22 of a cent to 98.11¢ US.