Asia and Europe stocks climb on US lead, as dollar dips

Asian and European stocks have rallied after tech companies spurred Wall Street to record highs, while the dollar steadied after jumping the previous day. Japan's tech-heavy Nikkei stock index rose 1.91 per cent on Tuesday and the MSCI Asia index, which excludes Japan, climbed 1.16 per cent . Australia's stocks benchmark touched an all-time high and was last up 0.56 per cent. In early European trading, the Stoxx 600 index rose 0.62 per cent. France's CAC 40 was up 0.94 per cent after failing to rise along with other European indexes on Monday as the government there teetered on the brink of collapse. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were roughly flat after the cash indexes hit new records on Monday, helped by tech stocks including a three per cent rally in both Facebook parent Meta Platforms and Tesla. "There's still really good companies who have very strong balance sheets, who have a lot of ability to generate cash," said Timothy Graf, head of macro strategy for EMEA at State Street. "I think a lot of the trades that have been working quite well the last two months are still performing. "The ones that haven't worked well over the last week or two, things like crypto have come off, they don't have those more resilient characteristics to them." The dollar index, which tracks the US currency against six others, was last down 0.15 per cent. The euro climbed 0.24 per cent to $1.0524 after dropping 0.74 per cent on Monday, while the pound rose 0.27 per cent to $US1.2692. The dollar gained more than 0.5 per cent on Monday as the euro slid on the back of France's political crisis, and was also boosted by tariff threats from President-elect Donald Trump and better-than-expected US manufacturing data. However, the greenback came under some pressure as Federal Reserve official Christopher Waller said he is "leaning toward" a rate cut on December 18. The Chinese yuan faces its own challenges from the growing threat of more US tariffs on China and it hit a 13-month trough of 7.3145 per dollar in the offshore market. Trump demanded at the weekend that BRICS member countries - which include China - commit to not creating a new currency or supporting another currency to replace the dollar. He said they would otherwise face 100 per cent tariffs. The Fed-sensitive two-year US Treasury yield dipped to 4.1836 per cent on Tuesday, heading back towards Friday's four-week low. Traders currently see about a 75 per cent chance of a quarter-point cut at this month's Fed meeting, up from 66 per cent a day earlier and 52 per cent a week ago, CME's FedWatch Tool showed. JOLTS job openings data - a preferred gauge of Fed officials - is due later on Tuesday, ahead of the monthly payrolls figures on Friday. Tesla shares dipped about one per cent in post-market trading after a Delaware judge ruled on Monday that Elon Musk is still not entitled to receive a $US56 billion compensation package despite shareholders voting for it. Gold ticked up to $US2,645, following its retreat from an all-time high of $US2,790.15 on October 1. Oil prices rose as traders awaited the outcome of an OPEC+ meeting later this week. Brent crude futures climbed 1.03 per cent to $US72.57 a barrel.