European stocks rose cautiously Tuesday on hopes that EU officials will provide Greece with some form of support to handle its mountain of debt and keep the market crisis from spreading to other vulnerable countries. Although the European Investment Bank said Tuesday it would not be able, according to its own rules, to offer Greece or any other country a bailout, investors are betting that a meeting on Thursday of EU heads of state will address the market's worry about sovereign debt. Britain's FTSE 100 index was up 0.5 percent at 5,116.17 and Germany's DAX gained 0.3 percent to 5,499.81. France's CAC-40 rose 0.1 percent to 3,610.95. Asian indexes were mixed at the close, drawn between losses on Wall Street overnight and the improvement in confidence in Europe. In the US, a rise was expected on the open, with Dow Jones industrials futures up 56 points at 9,951.00 and Standard and amp; Poor's 500 futures rising 7.8 points to 1,063.70. “This meeting of EU leaders is set to discuss the economic roadmap of the eurozone for the next 10 years; however it is difficult to see how the problems of Greece and other vulnerable indebted nations won't overshadow the summit,” said Michael Hewson, analyst at CMC Markets. Greece's government is currently discussing wage and pension reform in an effort to gain credibility in its plan to drive down its debt load. However, nationwide strikes were planned for Wednesday, possibly undercutting any confidence in the country's plan. “It would appear that these countries still don't get it, and this starkly highlights the problems ahead,” Hewson said. He said a bailout would be very problematic, since that would urge other heavily-indebted countries to seek the same treatment.
