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BANGKOK — Asian stocks rose Wednesday as investors hoped for good news from corporate earnings reports due soon in the U.S, while European shares fell after Slovakia's rejection of more financial firepower for the region's bailout fund.
Oil prices fell to near $85 a barrel while the dollar was weaker against the euro and the yen.
European stocks slipped a day after Slovakia, one of the smallest members of the 17-nation grouping that uses the euro, blocked a measure to expand the region's financial rescue program for heavily indebted countries.
The move intensified worries that a failure by Europe to contain its debt crisis could lead to a massive debt default by the Greek government.
Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.2 percent to 5,382.70. Germany's CAC-40 dropped 0.6 percent to 5,830.09 and France's CAC-40 was 0.5 percent lower at 3,138.69. But Wall Street appeared headed for a higher open, with Dow Jones industrial futures up 0.4 percent to 11,377 and S&P 500 futures 0.4 percent higher at 1,193.80.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.4 percent to close at 8,738.90. But Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1 percent to 18,329.46 and South Korea's Kospi added 0.8 percent to 1,809.50. Benchmarks in Singapore, India, Indonesia and mainland China also swung into positive territory.
In Hong Kong, sentiment was helped by a government pledge to expand the supply of affordable housing for low- and middle-income residents. Blue chip real estate stocks in Hong Kong welcomed the news. China Vanke Co. rose 3.2 percent, Poly Real Estate Group jumped 4.8 percent, and China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd. gained 5.8 percent.
China's Shanghai Composite Index jumped 3 percent to 2,420, two days after a government investment fund announced it had bought shares in major banks, helping to bolster the country's sagging stock market.
The banks' Hong Kong-listed shares continued to pile on gains. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China gained 1.2 percent, Bank of China rose 1.5 percent, Agricultural Bank of China added 2.3 percent, and China Construction Bank rose 2.5 percent.
But in Japan, shares of Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. fell, a day after the companies said some vehicle manufacturing in Thailand had to be suspended due to flooding. Honda lost 2.2 percent and Toyota was down 0.3 percent.
Benchmarks in Australia, Taiwan and Thailand were also lower.
Many analysts hope that the upcoming wave of U.S. corporate earnings reports will pull investor focus away from Europe and back to the health of American companies.
PepsiCo Inc., one of the world's largest food and beverage makers, is expected to report an uptick in profit Wednesday when the food and beverage maker releases its fiscal third-quarter results.
The results are being closely watched for clues as to what U.S. consumers are willing to spend their money on, which plays a critical role in the U.S. economy.
"If the U.S. corporations miss their estimates for the third quarter, then we will see selling pressure" on markets, according to Castor Pang, head of research at Core Pacific-Yamaichi in Hong Kong.
On Tuesday, Slovakia's parliament rejected a bill that would have strengthened the powers of a regional rescue fund to help bail out strapped economies in the eurozone.
The 16 other countries that use the euro have already signed off on the bill, but the measure requires unanimous support.
There are ways around Slovakia's opposition, but the move temporarily sets back efforts to address Europe's debt jam, which has been the most important issue for financial markets for months.
Such worries have caused investors globally to dump stocks, according to Cambridge, Mass.-based fund tracker EPFR Global.
Eight of the nine major equity fund groups tracked by EPFR posted outflows during the week ending Oct. 5. Investors withdrew a net $11.57 billion from equity funds, the third-worst weekly tally this year.
On Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average ended down 17 points after moving between small gains and losses throughout the day.
The Dow lost 0.1 percent to close at 11,416.3. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.1 percent to 1,195.54, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.7 percent to 2,583.03.
Benchmark crude for November delivery was down 19 cents at $85.62 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 40 cents to settle at $85.81 in New York on Tuesday.
In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3743 from $1.3669 late Monday in New York. The dollar weakened to 76.54 yen from 76.66 yen.
