World stock markets steadied Tuesday after a sell-off the day before, AP reported. There was a dearth of corporate or economic news for traders to digest and an insipid performance on Wall Street gave little direction either. In Europe, Germany's DAX gained 0.3 percent to 9,290.23. Britain's FTSE 100 was little changed, as was the CAC-40 in Paris. Wall Street futures also barely budged, with Dow futures at 16,414 and S&P 500 futures at 1,876.50. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average added 0.7 percent to 15,224.11 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose less than 0.1 percent to 22,269.61. China's Shanghai Composite inched up 0.1 percent to 2,001.16. Markets were also higher in South Korea, Australia and Southeast Asia. Benchmark U.S. crude for April delivery was up 25 cents at $101.37 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.46 to close at $101.12 a barrel Monday. In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3857 from $1.3879 late Monday. The dollar rose to 103.29 yen from 103.26 yen.
