Overnight in New York, the S&P 500 closed 0.4 per cent higher while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 0.7 per cent to a fresh record high.

Manufacturing gauges for France, Germany and the UK rose more than economists had expected.

Futures tipped the US stock benchmark to fall 0.3 percent when trading begins on Wall Street later in the day.

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7.15am update: Record number of US companies seek loan adjustments 

Last month 43 US issuers of leverage loans asked lenders for relief on their conditions due to rising debts from the coronavirus pandemic. 

That surpassed the March 2009 high of 25 according to the unit of rating agency S&P Global. 

7.09am update: Nikkei 225 remains up

Japan's stock exchange remains one point up at 22,550 at the time of writing this morning. 

Bill McLoughlin takes over from Rachel Russell. 

5.58am update: Asian shares crept to a four-month high on Wednesday as investors remained stubbornly upbeat 

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.39 percent to reach its highest since early March, though turnover was light.

Japan’s Nikkei firmed 0.1% and Chinese blue chips 0.3 percent. Caution was still evident elsewhere with E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 off 0.1 percent and EUROSTOXX 50 futures easing 0.7 percent.

On Wall Street, the Dow had ended Tuesday 0.5 percent higher, while the S&P 500 gained 0.43% and the Nasdaq 0.74 percent.