OVERNIGHT

Though Monday was a holiday in the U.S., futures in U.S. stocks that trade overseas overnight were up around 1.2 percent as Asian shares rallied Tuesday led by Chinese stocks and an apparent stabilizing in the yuan.

Hitting its highest level so far this year against the dollar before backing off  a bit, uncertainty caused by volatility in markets recently has shook up investors causing many to flee the yuan for safer ground. Such is somewhat surprising given last week's volatility at a time when Chinese markets were shut for a week-long holiday.

The WSJ reported: The Shanghai Composite Index was last up 2.8% at 2823.86, extending gains from the open. The smaller Shenzhen market gained almost 3%, while the Hang Seng Index was up 1.5%. Investors were buying one of the most beaten up stock markets globally this year, as a recovery in global markets started Monday and picked up across the Asia today.

The Nikkei Stock Average was up 0.9% and the S&P ASX 200 edged up 0.1%.

Earlier Tuesday, China reported that new loans hit a monthly record in January, with financial institutions issuing 2.5 trillion yuan ($385.5 billion) in fresh debt. The new credit figure was up significantly from the 597.8 billion yuan recorded in December and was also above the 1.9 trillion yuan forecast by The Wall Street Journal’s poll of 13 economists.

The Hong Kong Hang Send rallied nearly 3% on the news. Whether this will prove lasting remains to be seen. Again, according to the Journal, A bigger-than-expected fall in the currency last summer and at the start of this year had sparked selling in Chinese equities that spread across the globe. Despite gains earlier today, the Shanghai benchmark is still flirting close to a 50% loss from its highs last June.

“The key question is whether Beijing can keep money inside the country,” said Zheng Chunming, an analyst at Capital Securities.

Based on the above, however, U.S. markets might open the holiday-shortened trading week Tuesday higher given that oil prices were higher as stories again circulated about another meeting among some OPEC members and a possible agreement to cut production that would, if so, lend more stability to markets and perhaps calm investor nerves. Gold also traded down on the news after making it recent high of $1262.90 late last week.