Stocks gain despite Middle East tensions

U.S. equity futures are trading higher, looking to add to Monday's rebound despite caution over rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

The major futures indexes were indicating a gain of 0.1 percent when Wall Street begins the Tuesday session.

U.S. officials were bracing for Iran's response to the killing by a U.S. drone of its most powerful general, Qassem Soleimani. Noting heightened levels of military readiness in the country, Washington was preparing for a possible “tit-for-tat” attack on an American military leader.

In Europe, Germany's DAX advanced 1.1 percent, France's CAC climbed 0.5 percent and Britain's FTSE edged 0.2 percent higher.

In Asia,  Japan's Nikkei index added 1.6 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng picked up 0.3 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.7 percent.

Gold was steady Tuesday after touching its highest price since April 2013 on Monday.

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Oil prices gave up some of their recent big gains on Tuesday, with benchmark U.S. crude dropping 39 cents, or 0.6 percent to $62.89 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gained 22 cents to $63.27 per barrel on Monday.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, lost 50 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $68.41 per barrel. On Monday it added 31 cents to $68.91 per barrel.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
I:DJI	DOW JONES AVERAGES	44782	-128.65	-0.29%
SP500	S&P 500	6047.15	+14.77	+0.24%
I:COMP	NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX	19403.947849	+185.78	+0.97%

On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2 percent, the S&P 500 added 0.4 percent and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.6 percent.

Apart from waiting for next steps in the clash between the United States and Iran, several big economic reports are on the schedule this upcoming week that could move markets. The headliner is Friday's jobs report from the government.

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Solid jobs growth has helped support the U.S. economy, even as trade wars hurt manufacturing around the world. Economists expect Friday's report to show that employers added 160,000 jobs last month.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.