Shares rise as Abe confirms snap poll Tuesday 14:35 GMT. Stock barometers are mostly firmer as investors hope for more monetary largesse from the eurozone and welcome confirmation of a snap election in Japan, setting the scene for further stimulus measures in the world's third-biggest economy. The positive tone sees the dollar ease back, helping gold jump $8 to $1,194 an ounce - though a small dip in Treasury yields and weakness across industrial commodities suggests pockets of caution among traders. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose 2.2 per cent, recovering a chunk of the heavy losses recorded at the start of the week after Japan unexpectedly slipped into a technical recession. The renewed optimism reflected hopes that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would announce he is to seek a fresh mandate to delay a planned tax rise and undertake further reforms and fiscal action in order to boost growth. After Japanese markets closed Mr Abe confirmed he would postpone the tax hike for 18 months and go to the polls in December. But in a classic case of "buy the rumour, sell the fact" the yen rallied off 7-year lows around Y117 per dollar and is up 0.1 per cent on the day at Y116.56, causing Nikkei futures to slip back in out of hours trading. Meanwhile, the euro is adding 0.6 per cent to $1.2522 after the Zew survey of German economic sentiment rose more than expected. The single currency saw a swift sell-off late on Monday after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi again alluded to the possibility that unconventional measures such as sovereign bond buying could be used if inflation remained too low. Mr Draghi's comments helped European stocks recover losses and the momentum is continuing in the current session, with the FTSE Eurofirst 300 up 0.5 per cent. The sight of Wall Street inching up to another record close is also underpinning sentiment, and the S&P 500 is opening the new session up just 1 point at 2,042. Monday was the fifth session in a row that the S&P 500 has moved by less than 0.1 per cent, a sign the market is "catching its breath" after its strong rally off October's lows, says Strategas, the New York-based research boutique. That good run came on the back of optimism over corporate earnings, more M&A and hopes steady economic improvement will allow the Federal Reserve to tighten policy at a slow pace. The latest snapshot of the Fed's thinking will come on Wednesday, when the minutes of the October meeting will be released. In the meantime, the yield on 10-year Treasuries is down 1 basis point to 2.33 per cent after benign producer prices data, while equivalent maturity Bunds are easing 1bp to 0.79 per cent, just 7bp above record lows. That wide yield differential has been supporting the greenback of late. But the dollar index, which on Friday touched a four-year intraday high of 88.27, is slipping 0.4 per cent on the day at 87.57 as the buck's peers find favour. Sterling has bounced off session lows to trade up 23 pips to $1.5663 after UK inflation data came in a touch higher than forecast. The softer buck is not helping dollar-denominated industrial commodities, however. Copper is down 1.2 per cent to $6,621 a tonne as base metals are rattled by news that a measure of iron ore prices into China has fallen to five-year lows. Brent crude has been volatile, rising to $79.95 before relapsing to change hands at $78.55 a barrel, off 1 per cent, as oversupply concerns linger. In China, the second day for the stock connect scheme between the Hong Kong and Shanghai bourses could not prevent losses for benchmark gauges. "Northbound" activity, in which international investors have direct access to China from Hong Kong, far outweighed that of mainland investors seeking international assets. However, Tuesday brought fresh bad news about China's faltering property sector, with new home prices falling in virtually every city surveyed in October. That left the Shanghai Composite down 0.7 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng off 1.1 per cent. Reporting by Jamie Chisholm in London and Jennifer Thompson in Hong Kong