World stocks rose Wednesday on upbeat corporate earnings reports and as worries about Greece's debt crisis eased. Kraft Foods Inc. and apparel retailer Abercrombie and amp; Fitch reported earnings that beat expectations on Tuesday, while drugmaker Merck and amp; Co. and UK banking giant Barclays also reported soaring profits. France's BNP Paribas, the eurozone's largest bank, posted its fourth straight quarterly profit on Wednesday. That helped drive Britain's FTSE 100 benchmark index up 0.7 percent to 5,278.14 and Germany's DAX 0.8 percent higher to 5,637.88. France's CAC-40 rose 1.2 percent to 3,714.15. Asian indexes also rose, although markets in China and Taiwan were closed for the Lunar New Year holiday, while Wall Street was expected to edge up on the open. Dow industrials futures were up 28 points at 10,269.00 and Standard and amp; poor's 500 futures were up 5 points at 1,098.20. Financial stocks were in demand, with BNP Paribas leading the charge with a 2.8 percent gain after its earnings statement. Italy's Unicredit Spa was up 2.9 percent and Lloyds Banking Group was up 3.0 percent. Signs of growth in the US, the world's largest economy, also helped sentiment, driving Wall Street higher overnight after a manufacturing index rose. Eyes will turn to other U.S. data, including housing starts, jobless claims and inflation, as well as minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting. The minutes will be scrutinized for signs that the central bank is getting to ready to undo its stimulus measures and eventually raise interest rates. Looming over markets, however, remained Greece's debt crisis and the danger of contagion to other vulnerable countries in the region. Those fears eased somewhat Wednesday, helping the euro stabilize. After promising support but providing no details of a bailout, the EU gave Greece a month to show results in its austerity plan to cut budget spending. It also wants details by Friday on its use of swaps to manage the size of its debt in past years. “It will be interesting to see how dominant the Greece story remains now that the deadlines have been pushed to 16 March for a timeframe of action,” said Daragh Maher, analyst at Calyon. “This could see the story fade from radar screens and allow some of the ‘Greece discount' to disappear from the euro as the market obsession moves onwards temporarily at least,” he said. Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average jumped 272.58 points, or 2.7 percent, at 10,306.83 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index climbed 265.32, or 1.3 percent, to 20,534.01.
