Currencies

• EUR/USD The euro declined from a one-week high against the dollar on speculation Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will struggle to pass an austerity package through parliament even after winning a confidence vote.
  • The euro weakened to $1.4367 as of 1:05 p.m. in Tokyo from $1.4412 in New York yesterday.


• USD/JPY The pair was little changed from yesterday.
  • It was trading at 80.285 around 7 a.m. London time.


• GBP/USD The pair decreased in the early trading hours in Asia, before it bounced back.
  • It was trading at 1.62442 around 7:30 a.m. London time.

Commodities

• Gold futures locked in a six-day winning streak yesterday as Greece neared a political milestone.
  • Gold for immediate delivery gained as much as 0.3 percent to $1,550.93 an ounce, before trading little changed at $1,546.20 an ounce at 11:09 a.m. in Mumbai.
  • The August-delivery contract was also little changed at $1,547 an ounce.

• Oil fell in New York on signs that a drop in U.S. stockpiles will be smaller than forecast and speculation that OPEC countries including Saudi Arabia are increasing supplies.
  • Futures declined as much as 0.7 percent after an industry report showed inventories slipped 81,000 barrels last week.
  • Crude for August delivery fell as much as 67 cents to $93.50 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and was at $93.62 at 1:39 p.m. Sydney time.

Equities

• U.S. stocks closed sharply higher Tuesday as investors bet Greece will take the appropriate actions toward averting a sovereign-debt default.
  • The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index gained 17.16 points, or 1.34%, to 1295.52.
  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 109.63 points, or 0.91%, at 12190.01.


• European stocks rose sharply on hopes Greece's government will survive a crucial confidence vote, while Nokia got a lift after unveiling its latest smartphone and BP climbed after announcing a settlement with one of its Deepwater Horizon suppliers.
  • The U.K.'s FTSE 100 rose 1.4% at 5775.31.
  • Germany's DAX climbed 1.9% to 7285.51 and France's CAC-40 surged ahead 2% to 3877.07.


• Asian stocks rose as Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou won a parliamentary confidence vote, moving the country a step closer to avoiding a default on its debt.
  • Sony Corp., Japan's largest exporter of consumer electronics, and Korea's Samsung Electronics Co., both of which receive at least 20 percent of sales from Europe, advanced.
  • The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.8 percent to 131.70 as of 12:21 p.m. in Tokyo.
  • Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 1.3 percent.
  • Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index increased 0.4 percent.

Sources: Bloomberg, FT