The U.S. stock market appeared ready to open in the red, with Dow futures pointing to a 1.3 per cent loss and S&P 500 futures indicating a 1.5 per cent decline.
The picture was completely different in Europe, where bank stocks gained after taking a beating on Monday. Britain's FTSE 100 index rose 1.4 per cent, France's CAC 40 gained 0.8 per cent and Germany's DAX rose 1.1 per cent.
Swiss shares leapt 4.4 per cent after Switzerland announced it would keep a lid on its surging currency. It set a target of 1.20 francs to the euro that it said it would enforce by unlimited buying of foreign exchange. After the announcement, the euro was trading at just above the 1.20 target. It earlier traded around 1.10 francs.
Gold, which is traditionally correlated with the Swiss franc, slid more than 2.5 per cent to $1,860 (U.S.) an ounce within minutes of the announcement. It later recovered, to trade around $1,894.40.
Core German debt yields stayed near historic lows, well below 2 per cent, signalling investors' search for safety continued.
Copper was slightly steadier, with three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange trading at $8,976 a tonne.
U.S. crude lost 2 per cent to $84.73 a barrel.
The Canadian dollar slipped to $1.0093 (U.S.).