Oil up

Singapore/Tokyo: Oil prices clung to this month´s high on Tuesday after Iraqi forces seized the oil-rich city of Kirkuk from largely autonomous Kurdish fighters while Asian shares held firm on optimism about upcoming earnings.

Short-term U.S. bond yields and interest rates jumped after a report U.S. President Donald Trump favoured Stanford economist John Taylor to head the Federal Reserve.

Japan´s Nikkei rose 0.4 percent, marking an 11-day winning streak while MSCI´s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.1 percent having gained in 10 of the past 12 sessions. European shares are expected to tick up slightly, with spread-betters looking at a rise at opening of up to 0.1 percent in Britain´s FTSE, France´s CAC and Germany´s DAX. “There is no major country that is facing economic troubles. We have a decent global growth, upbeat corporate sentiment and no inflation.