News that European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet will leave a meeting in Australia early to attend a special European Union summit later this week has lifted market sentiment on Tuesday.

Trichet was supposed to spend both Tuesday and Wednesday in Sydney at central bank meetings. Instead, he will now fly back on Tuesday, according to the ECB.

It is expected that EU leaders will address the euro zone's debt problems at the informal gathering on Thursday.

Global stock markets turned higher following the news, while the euro and commodities also perked up.

The world's stock markets dived in recent days as the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in Europe caused a stampede out of equities into safer investments as investors considered the possibility of debt defaults by Greece, Spain and Portugal.

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