A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from

Gregor Stuart Hunter

If U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was hoping for a

reprieve from his to-do list, this might be as good as it gets.

The Japanese currency weakened for the first time in five

sessions on Tuesday, as the dust settled from rare coordinated

intervention in foreign exchange markets by officials in Tokyo

and Washington.

The yen was 0.3% softer against the U.S. dollar at

157.715 yen, and weaker by a similar amount versus the euro at

181.45 yen. It remains about 4% stronger against both compared

with levels a week ago that prompted official support, marking

the first U.S. foray into Japan's foreign exchange market in 15

years.

But an auction of 10-year Japanese government bonds on Tuesday

also drew weaker demand than the previous sale of sovereign

debt, prompting a fresh bout of jitters and a jump higher in

yields.

Elsewhere, with few other catalysts, stocks drifted through the

Asian trading session. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific

shares outside Japan was down 0.5%, while the

Nikkei 225 slumped 0.3%.

S&P 500 e-mini futures were 0.2% higher, inching

closer towards reclaiming record highs, as investors focused on

better-than-expected corporate earnings. With almost two-thirds

of S&P 500 companies reporting, 84% have beaten earnings

estimates, according to LSEG data.

Oil prices recovered a little after plunging on Monday, with

Brent crude up 1.4% at $84.93 a barrel in the Asian

session as traders looked through U.S. President Donald Trump's

promises to refrain from attacking Iran to help peace talks that

Tehran says are not taking place.

In any event, not much shipping traffic is passing through the

Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb waterways.

In early European trades, pan-region futures were up

0.3% and German DAX futures were 0.2% higher, with both

indexes on track to reach record highs, while FTSE futures

nudged up 0.3%.

Meanwhile, after security breaches by AI agents gone rogue,

developers Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI and Google

have been invited to meet White House officials on Tuesday to

discuss voluntary government safety testing for their most

advanced models, three sources familiar with the matter told

Reuters.

Key developments that could influence markets on Tuesday:

Company earnings:

SpaceX, AMD, Caterpillar ( CAT ), McDonald's

, Pfizer ( PFE ), BP, Lufthansa

Economic events:

France: Budget balance for June

Debt auctions:

Germany: 2-year government debt

UK: 6-year government debt