European stocks climbed for a second day, erasing an earlier drop, as American lawmakers continued to debate plans to address the so-called fiscal cliff.
US index futures and Asian shares were little changed.
OC Oerlikon rallied 4.5 per cent as the world's largest maker of textile machinery raised its earnings forecast and sold units.
TUI Travel gained 2.7 per cent after Europe's largest tour operator reported earnings that topped analyst estimates.
United Internet tumbled as Warburg Pincus offered its 5.5 per cent stake for sale.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index increased 0.3 per cent to 276.9 at 9.42 am in London.
The gauge has climbed 18 per cent from this year's low on June 4, boosted by central-bank measures to support growth.
The Reserve Bank of Australia today cut its benchmark interest rate for the sixth time in 14 months.
"We still anticipate a deal will be done to avoid the cliff," Daniel Morris, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management in London, said.
"We may go a bit over the fiscal cliff and scramble back up again but ultimately the impact, especially on the real economy, will not be significant. If you see equities sell off because of worries about the cliff, you should see that as a buying opportunity."
Standard and Poor's 500 Index futures rose less than 0.1 per cent after the benchmark gauge for US equities fell 0.5 per cent yesterday.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index was almost unchanged for a second day.
President Barack Obama's administration rejected a Republican plan for tackling the fiscal cliff as it didn't include higher tax rates for top-earning Americans, something the president has called essential.
House speaker John Boehner proposed $1.4 trillion in spending cuts and $800 billion in new revenue by limiting tax breaks and capping deductions. With the Republican blueprint, both parties now have their opening offers on the table.
Mr Obama's proposed framework calls for $1.6 trillion in tax increases, $350 billion in cuts in health programs, $250 billion from other programs and $800 billion in assumed savings from the wind-down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to administration officials.
Finance ministers from the European Union's 27 nations meet in Brussels today to discuss setting up a common bank supervisor as part of a wider crisis-fighting plan.
French finance minister Pierre Moscovici told reporters yesterday he is "confident" Greece will pull off a successful bond buyback.
Bloomberg
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