Stock market today: World stocks track Wall Street gains ahead of earnings reports

FILE – A person looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan’s Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm in Tokyo, on April 19, 2024. Asian benchmarks extended gains Tuesday, April 23, after U.S. stocks clawed back a chunk of their losses from the previous week.(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

HONG KONG (AP) — Global markets were mostly higher Tuesday after U.S. stocks clawed back a chunk of their losses from the week before, with roughly 150 companies in the S&P 500 set to report earnings this week.

The futures for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were 0.1% higher.

Oil prices rose as the Israeli military signaled it plans an offensive targeting the Gazan city of Rafah. The latest satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press appear to show a new compound of tents being built near Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, in an area targeted by repeated Israeli military operations over recent weeks.

FILE – A person looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan’s stock princes at a securities firm in Tokyo, April 2, 2024. Asian benchmarks extended gains Tuesday, April 23, after U.S. stocks clawed back a chunk of their losses from the previous week. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

London’s FTSE 100 hit a record high early Tuesday as the index surged 0.5% to 8,061.61, surpassing its previous peak in February 2023. Germany’s DAX was 0.7% higher at 17,985.96 and the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.2% to 8,057.58.

FILE – The front of the New York Stock Exchange is shown on Thursday, April 11, 2024 in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

In Asian trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 0.3% to 37,552.16, despite the country’s manufacturing activity contracting for 11 straight months while approaching the break-even point in April.

A purchasing managers survey showed sentiment at 49.9, on a scale of up to 100 where 50 marks the break between expansion and contraction. The yen weakened further, hitting a fresh 34-year low of 154.85 early Tuesday.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 1.9% to 16,820.51 while the Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.7% to 3,021.98.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.5% to 7,683.50. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.2% to 2,623.02.

On Monday, the S&P 500 gained 0.5%, recovering more than a quarter of last week’s rout. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.7% and the Nasdaq composite jumped 1.1%.

Tesla dropped 3.4% after announcing price cuts over the weekend. Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company’s stock has dropped more than 40% already this year. It was due to release its first quarter earnings later Tuesday.

About a third of the companies in the S&P 500 are scheduled to say how much they made during the year’s first three months. That includes companies that have come to be known as part of the “Magnificent Seven,” beyond Tesla and Alphabet.

Even more pressure than usual is on companies broadly to deliver fatter profits and revenue. That’s because the other big factor that sets stock prices, interest rates, looks unlikely to offer much help in the near term.

Top officials at the Federal Reserve warned last week that they may need to keep interest rates high for a while in order to ensure inflation is heading down to their 2% target. That was a big letdown for financial markets, dousing hopes that had built after the Fed signaled earlier that three interest-rate cuts may come this year.

Lower rates had appeared to be on the horizon after inflation cooled sharply last year. But a string of reports this year showing inflation has remained hotter than expected has raised worries about stalled progress.

In oil trading, U.S. benchmark crude picked up 80 cents to $82.70 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 79 cents to $87.79 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar slipped to 154.83 Japanese yen from 154.84 yen. The euro rose to $1.0677 from $1.0653.