Early weakness in risk assets has been pared in European trading but investors continue to place a wary focus on Europe's debt problems ahead of crucial austerity package debates in Greece this week.
The FTSE All-World equity index is down 0.1%, mainly as a result of a soft showing in Asia, where falling energy shares contributed to the region losing 1%, with Tokyo and Sydney also down 1%, but Shanghai bucking the trend with a gain of 0.4%.
Industrial commodities are soft, but well off lows, and core bond yields are pulling back from fresh lows for the year, with the US 10-year note offering 2.86%, having touched 2.84%.
Bank stocks were losing ground on sovereign debt exposure concerns and after the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision agreed to tighten capital adequacy requirements for large global lenders. But a partial rebound for the financials has helped the FTSE Eurofirst 300 add 0.1%.
Additional support is being provided S&P 500 futures, which point to a 0.3% pop for New York later in the day.
This would leave the US benchmark index trading at about 1,273, ten points away from what some technical analysts consider to be crucial support around the 200-day average of 1,263.
Major stock benchmarks and many commodities have had a dreary time since the start of May, when global equities hit a cyclical high. Since then, the imminent end of the Federal Reserve's USD 600 billion QE2 support package and worries about signs of slowing growth from the US to China - albeit at a vastly different pace - have damped demand for risk assets.
But perhaps the main concern right now is the Greek fiscal crisis. Markets appear to be getting increasingly pessimistic that a solution can be found that does not include a restructuring of Greek bond payments - and that this could pose problems for the European financial system and trigger a contagious spiral of sovereign debt selling elsewhere in the eurozone.
So it is that investors will be keeping a close eye on the parliamentary debate in Athens on the austerity package deal with the European Union and IMF. If the deal is voted down on Wednesday, then Greece is not expected to receive the funds that will stave off a default early in July.
The euro was thus again under pressure in early trading, but it has turned things around, though the reason for the improved mood is not clear, with some pointing to news of a French bank Greek debt rollover plan as a positive development.
The single currency is now up 0.1% to USD 1.4208 even after the yield spread between Italian and German 10-year bonds - currently the market's prime gauge of "peripheral" stress - moved to a euro-era record of 218 basis points.
Units with a high correlation to global growth hopes, such as the Australian dollar, still remain under some pressure, while perceived havens like the Swiss franc and US dollar have lost some of their initial sparkle.
The dollar index is down 0.1% to 75.53. Early dollar strength continues to leave a residue of downward force on buck-denominated commodities, however, pushing copper down 0.6% to USD 4.07 a pound and also hurting agriculturals.
Economic growth worries continue to make oil suffer, with last week's IEA supply shock remaining an additional weight.
Brent crude is down 0.8% to USD 104.31 and some equity bulls argue that falling energy costs, by reducing margin pressure and delivering a tax cut for households are a positive for stocks.
Gold is having one of those days when it closely tracks the dollar and after breaking below the USD 1,500 an ounce mark, has rallied to trade up 0.2% or USD 1,502 an ounce.
