London: World stocks rose on Wednesday after strong earnings and forecasts from Apple raised expectations of solid second-quarter results from other heavyweight companies.
Wall Street looked set to join in with a higher open while the euro fell after weak Portuguese and German bond auction results.
Focus was on upcoming testimony by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke following a recent run of disappointing data.
Dovish talk could boost speculation about more monetary-easing steps.
Technology shares were in demand after Apple gave an unusually upbeat revenue forecast that trounced Wall Street's expectations.
"So far so good, but the emphasis will be on third-quarter guidance increasingly," said Bernard McAlinden, investment strategist at NCB Stockbrokers, Dublin.
"The market is still consolidating last year's gains. We are waiting just for the market to realise that there won't be a double dip."
The MSCI all-country world equity index rose half a per cent. The Thomson Reuters global stock index gained 0.4 per cent.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index advanced 1.7 per cent while emerging stocks rose one per cent.
The euro slipped against the dollar after a weak auction of Portuguese debt highlighted the fragility of the EU banking sector ahead of bank stress test results tomorrow.
Portugal sold 1.25 billion euros in 12-month Treasury bills, but the average yield more than doubled from the previous sale, while the bid-to-cover ratio was much lower.
A German auction also disappointed, traders said, as Berlin sold 3.19 billion euros of a new benchmark 30-year bond, drawing total bids below the four billion euros the debt management office issued.
"It doesn't take much to sow seeds of doubt in the euro," said Michael Hewson, currency strategist at CMC Markets.
The single currency was down more than 0.6 per cent on the day at $1.2804.
On Eurozone bond markets, short-term debt was in demand.
Emerging-market stocks headed for their biggest gain in more than a week on higher prices for oil and industrial metals and better-than-estimated earnings by Apple.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index traded 0.94 per cent higher at 962.64 as of 11.03am in London, adding to yesterday's 0.9 per cent advance.
Russia's Micex Index climbed 2.2 per cent, its biggest intraday increase since July 6, and China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.3 per cent, its third day of advances in its longest winning streak since April.
Lukoil, Russia's second-biggest oil producer, rose 3.1 per cent, its biggest intraday gain for more than five weeks, and Gazprom, the world's largest gas company, was 2.3 per cent higher as crude oil prices climbed for a third straight day.
"There's better growth out of emerging markets versus developed markets," said Philip Orlando, a New York chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors, which manages about $350 billion of assets.
"The stock market globally is extremely attractive," he said.
Samsung Electronics, which supplies semiconductors for Apple, rose 2.4 per cent after the US firm beat analysts' estimates for third-quarter net income and sales. LG Chem rallied 4.4 per cent.
