San Francisco Frontiers - Global stocks steady as US and Russia hold talks

The talks, which excluded Europe and Ukraine, ended with Moscow and Washington agreeing to appoint teams to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war.

"Donald Trump continues to be the dominant force for financial markets," said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB.

"Trump has ripped up the playbook when it comes to dealing with Russia, and the markets are keeping the faith with the US President for now," she added.

In Europe, the main markets were mostly higher, with Frankfurt's DAX index striking another all-time high as elections approach, with investors hoping a ruling coalition better able to act will emerge.

Defence stocks mostly added to gains after having soared the previous day as European leaders held an informal summit to discuss Ukraine and signalled more financial and military support ahead.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said her government would announce plans later Wednesday for a "massive" rearming of Denmark's military due to the growing threat posed by Russia.

Wall Street opened mostly higher as traders came back from a three-day holiday weekend, with the S&P 500 falling just short of hitting a record high.

"Fittingly, gains in the mega-cap stocks, and AI enthusiasm following xAI's release of its Grok 3 model, are among the primary factors for the upside bias," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.

Shares in struggling chipmaker Intel rose more than six percent at the start of trading following reports that rivals Broadcom and TSMC could buy parts of its business.

Over in Asia, Hong Kong's stock market soared Tuesday, thanks to a recovery in Chinese tech stocks.

That came after a meeting between President Xi Jinping and China's top business leaders fanned hopes that a long-running crackdown on the private sector is coming to an end.

Since taking the helm, Xi has strengthened the role of state enterprises in the world's second-largest economy and waged crackdowns on some areas of the private sector.

The drive has hammered some of the country's biggest names in recent years, sending their share prices plummeting.

Monday's gathering provided some much-needed relief to investors and boosted hopes for a sector revival.

"This was seen as a strong signal that his crackdown on the tech sector is over and with forthcoming pro-business policies to help revive the economy," said National Australia Bank head of market economics Tapas Strickland.

Chinese tech and e-commerce giant Alibaba rose more than two percent. Games developer XD Inc surged more than 10 percent, while Tencent added two percent.

Shanghai's stock market fared less well, while Tokyo gained.

Sydney fell as the Reserve Bank of Australia announced its first interest rate cut since late 2020 but warned global uncertainties would make it hard for officials to follow up with any more anytime soon.

- Key figures around 1430 GMT -

New York - Dow: DOWN less than 0.1 percent at 44,513.12 points

New York - S&P 500: UP 0.1 percent at 6,122.62

New York - Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.3 percent at 20,080.99

London - FTSE 100: FLAT at 8,764.72

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.2 percent at 8,202.31

Frankfurt - DAX: UP 0.1 percent at 22,828.41

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 0.3 percent at 39,270.40 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 1.6 percent at 22,976.81 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.9 percent at 3,324.49 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0455 from $1.0483 on Monday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2608 from $1.2613

Dollar/yen: UP at 151.76 from 151.41 yen

Euro/pound: DOWN at 82.93 pence from 83.11 pence

West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.1 percent at $71.53 per barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.4 percent at $75.50 per barrel

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