Australia

Australian shares are set to open higher, after US stocks overcame some early weakness but still ended little changed.

ASX futures were up 0.27% or 23 points as of 8:00am on Wednesday, suggesting a higher open.

Major US stock ended near flat as traders weighed mixed results on a busy day of corporate earnings.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.2% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 declined less than 0.1%. The indexes pared the morning's steeper losses as traders pored over a bonanza of quarterly earnings from big companies.

In commodity markets, Brent crude oil was up 1.7% to US$75.58 a barrel, while gold was up 1.1% to US$2,749.01.

The Australian dollar was at 66.80 US cents, up from its previous close of 66.56.

Asia

Chinese shares closed higher. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.5% to 3,285.87, and the Shenzhen Composite Index added 0.9% to 1,953.64.

Hong Kong shares ended higher. The benchmark Hang Seng Index gained 0.1% to 20,498.95.

Japanese shares closed lower. The Nikkei Stock Average lost 1.4% to 38,411.96.

India shares ended lower. The BSE SENSEX fell 1.1% to 80,220.72.

Europe

Stocks in the U.K. finished lower. The FTSE 100 Index dropped 0.1% to 8,306.54.

In Europe, shares closed mixed. Germany's DAX slipped 0.2% to 19,421.91, and France's CAC 40 was unchanged at 7,535.10.

North America

U.S. stocks ended mixed. The DJIA was unchanged at 42,924.89, the S&P 500 was unchanged at 5,851.20, and the Nasdaq increased 0.2% to 18,573.13.

Among S&P 500 companies, the top three gainers were Philip Morris International Inc, surging 10.51%, General Motors Co jumped 9.42%, and Quest Diagnostics Inc lifted 6.93%.

The biggest decliners were Genuine Parts Co which dropped 20.38%, GE Aerospace fell 8.78%, and PulteGroup Inc lost 7.02%.