Italy will sell 7 billion euros ($9.4 billion) of 365-day bills today

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 1.1 percent as of 2:46 p.m. in Tokyo, rebounding from the biggest loss in a month. The euro fell 0.3 percent against the dollar following a 0.3 percent gain on Dec. 9. Copper slid 1.3 percent and oil declined 0.2 percent to $99.23 a barrel.moncler jackets Futures on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 0.2 percent.

U.S. consumer confidence climbed to a six-month high, data on Dec. 9 showed. European leaders unveiled a blueprint last week for a fiscal accord to save the currency, adding 200 billion euros ($267 billion) to a bailout fund and tightening rules to curb future debts. A smaller trade surplus and the weakest export growth since 2009 may encourage Chinese policy makers to add to a Nov. 30 cut in bank reserve requirements that was the first since 2008.

"There are some increasing prospects of resolution in Europe," Nigel Tupper, Asia Pacific strategist and chief global quantitative strategist at Bank of America Corp., said in a Bloomberg Television interview from Hong Kong. "Inflation is moderating on a global basis and that allows central banks globally to start to ease where they can, and that's what we need to see."

Bond Auctions

The euro weakened to $1.3342. Foreign-exchange strategists are slashing their forecasts for the currency at the fastest pace this year as the European Central Bank's interest-rate cuts remove one of the currency's pillars of support. Analysts reduced end-of-2012 estimates for the euro to $1.32 from $1.40 since Nov. 3, based on the median of 40 forecasts in a Bloomberg survey as of last week.

Italy will sell 7 billion euros ($9.4 billion) of 365-day bills today, while France is scheduled to auction 6.5 billion euros of short-term debt.

S&P 500 futures fell to 1,250.80, signaling the U.S. equity benchmark may trim its 1.7 percent gain on Dec. 9. Benchmark 10- year note yields were little changed at 2.05 percent after rising the most in a month on Dec. 9.

Confidence among U.S. shoppers increased to 67.7 in December,cheap moncler jackets according to a Dec. 9 report from the Thomson Reuters/Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment. The gauge was projected to rise to 65.8, according to the median forecast of 73 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

'Bright Spots'

"U.S. economic data is improving quite nicely and that's one of the few bright spots in the world," said Mark Matthews, Singapore-based head of research for Asia at Bank Julius Baer & Co., which has about $180 billion globally.

About three stocks rose for each that fell in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index as all of its 10 industry groups advanced. The equity benchmark sank 1.9 percent on Dec. 9 after data indicated weaker economic growth in China, Japan and South Korea. The gauge has lost 15 percent this year.

The MSCI China Index jumped 1.4 percent. The Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index slid 0.4 percent, extending five weeks of losses. China's overseas shipments rose 13.8 percent in November from a year earlier, according to customs data released Dec. 10 in Beijing. The excess of exports over imports fell by 35 percent.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd., China Merchants Bank Co. and Bank of Communications Co. climbed more than 2.2 percent in Hong Kong. China will further open its economy and "actively expand imports," President Hu Jintao said at a Dec. 11 forum marking the country's 10th anniversary of joining the World Trade Organization.

Haitong Drops

Haitong Securities Co. declined 1.2 percent in Shanghai. China's third-biggest brokerage by market value canceled plans to raise as much as $1.7 billion in a first-time share sale in Hong Kong, said three people with knowledge of the matter. Volatile stock markets curbed demand, said one of the people, who declined to be identified as the process is private.

The cost of protecting Asia-Pacific corporate and sovereign bonds from default fell, according to traders of credit-default swaps. The Markit iTraxx Asia index of 40 investment-grade borrowers outside Japan dropped seven basis points to 193.5 basis points, according to Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. The gauge is set for its biggest daily loss since Dec. 2, according to data provider CMA.

Copper for three-month delivery in London fell 1.3 percent to $7,715 per metric ton. Gold for immediate delivery retreated 1.1 percent to $1,692.60 an ounce.

Australia's dollar weakened 0.4 percent moncler 2012 to $1.0177. The nation's trade surplus narrowed to A$1.6 billion ($1.63 billion) in October from a revised A$2.25 billion in September, the Bureau of Statistics said in Sydney today. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News economist survey was for a surplus of A$2 billion.