World stocks up as Apple result lifts tech shares BANGKOK (AP) - World stocks rose Wednesday as investors stayed calm in the face of a possible debt default by Greece to search for good deals in technology shares boosted by stunning results from Apple Inc. Benchmark crude rose to nearly $99 per barrel while the dollar rose against the yen but fell against the euro. European shares followed their Asian counterparts higher. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.4 percent to 5,774.31. Germany's DAX climbed 0.5 percent to 6,448.33 and France's CAC-40 added 0.4 percent at 3,334.50. After a session of slight losses Tuesday, Wall Street appeared headed for a higher opening. Dow Jones industrial futures rose 0.1 percent to 12,644 while S&P 500 futures added 0.2 percent to 1,314.40. Asian stocks posted solid gains. The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo rose 1.1 percent to close at 8,883.69. South Korea's Kospi gained 0.1 percent to 1,952.23 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 1.1 percent to 4,271.30. Honda Motor Corp. surged 3.8 percent. Mitsubishi Motor Corp. jumped 4.4 percent and Sony Corp. added 4.8 percent. Tire-maker Bridgestone Corp. added 4.2 percent. Hynix Semiconductor Inc., the world's second-largest memory chip maker, added 1.9 percent. In Australia, shares in Lynas Corp. Ltd. soared 5.1 percent after the company said it had secured the funding necessary to complete construction and start-up at its rare earths processing plant in Malaysia. Stan Shamu of IG Markets in Melbourne said the gains in Asia suggested that investors were paying less attention to Greece, which is struggling to reach a deal with creditors to prevent a chaotic default on its massive debts. "To a large extent, traders are thinking that people are going to lose money either way in this deal, so it's now about how we can move on," Shamu said. Markets "are thinking more long-term. Encouraging data out of the U.S. has been good for sentiment. We also have China, which has been managing its economy very well. Benchmark oil for March delivery rose 8 cents to $99.03 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In currency trading, the euro rose to $1.3031 from $1.3021 late Tuesday in New York. The dollar rose to 77.98 yen from 77.73 yen.