Markets were also cautious ahead of U.S. inflation numbers on Wednesday, which coming soon after strong jobs data, could fuel more speculation about the Fed’s bond-purchase taper.

Asian stocks traded sideways on Tuesday, as concerns over the spread of the Delta variant and expectations of earlier tapering by the Federal Reserve offset strong corporate earnings, while gold and oil recovered after their sharp falls.

Other markets were set to open lower with S&P 500 Futures dipping 0.12%, Euro STOXX 50 futures down 0.01% and FTSE futures off 0.15%.

“Equities have pretty much tracked sideways, but commodities are slightly weak and that’s partly reflecting COVID-19 uncertainty because cases seem to be increasing and background concerns of a slowdown in China,” said TD Securities Asia-Pacific strategist Prashant Newnaha.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index was 0.78% higher, while the  Shanghai Composite traded 0.42% higher, and Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.22%.

Gold prices also recovered, after touching a four-month low on Monday as strong U.S. jobs data bolstered expectations of an early tapering of the Federal Reserve’s economic support measures.

Officials also said inflation was at a level that could satisfy one leg of a key test for the beginning of interest rate hikes.

“That probably weighted on equities slightly,” added Newnaha.

The FTSE MIB climbed up by 0.14% to 26,178.30. In the cash markets, the DAX  Germany was trading up 0.07%  to 15,758.65. CAC 40  in France fell  by 0.04% to 6,815.60 while the FTSE 100  in the U.K. were down by 0.12% to 7,123.35. ,at the time of writing.