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BANGKOK - Asian stocks eked out gains Thursday as traders hunted for bargains after sharp selling in recent days, but markets in Europe fell amid intensifying fears of a messy exit by Greece from the euro common currency.

Greece called a new round of elections for June 17 after coalition talks to form a government fell apart. The president said depositors were pulling hundreds of millions of euros out of banks, weakening the country’s strained financial system.

The developments fueled fears that Greece would exit the euro currency and shake global markets. In elections earlier this month, Greek voters punished parties that supported tough austerity measures needed to secure international bailout money.

But analysts at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong said the scheduling of new Greek elections suggested “a reduction in near-term uncertainties” that could lead to some relief for volatile markets.

Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.4 per cent to 5,380.72 in early trading. Germany’s DAX fell 0.2 per cent to 6,373.01 and France’s CAC-40 lost 0.2 per cent to 3,042.45.

U.S. stocks were set for a moderately higher opening, with Dow Jones industrial futures up 0.3 per cent at 12,610. S&P 500 futures rose 0.4 per cent to 1,327.

In Asia, stock markets enjoyed a slight rebound as investors went bargain-hunting, analysts said.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 0.9 per cent to close at 8,876.59 after the country posted better-than-expected growth figures for the first quarter. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.3 per cent to 1,845.24. Benchmarks in Taiwan, New Zealand and the Philippines also rose business cards.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.2 per cent to 4,157.40, dragged down by financial stocks. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 0.3 per cent down at 19,200.93.

Mainland Chinese shares bounced back from early losses, buoyed by calls from the country’s central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, for market reforms.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.4 per cent to 2,378.89. The Shenzhen Composite Index also gained 1.4 per cent to 954.95. Shares in brokerages, financial and trading-related companies led the gains.

Positive news on the U.S. economy on Wednesday underpinned sentiment in Asia. Construction of homes in April rose 2.6 per cent from March, and U.S. factory production increased 0.6 per cent in April, helped by a gain in auto production.

Some Japanese stocks saw big gains amid news that the country’s economy grew at an annualized 4.1 per cent for the January-March quarter thanks to a rebound in consumer spending.

Sharp Corp. jumped 5.7 per cent and Mazda Motor Corp. added 3.8 per cent. Steel company JFE Holdings shot up 5.5 per cent.

Benchmark oil for June delivery was up 52 cents to $93.33 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Wednesday, the contract fell by $1.17 to finish at a seven-month low of $92.81 per barrel in New York.

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.2715 from $1.2725 late Wednesday in New York. The dollar rose to 80.35 yen from 80.29 yen.

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AP researcher Fu Ting contributed from Shanghai.

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Spain will make a fourth attempt to convince investors its banking system is solid after failing to do so with three prior tries in as many years.

South Sudan’s military spokesman says Sudanese aircraft dropped 10 bombs in an oil-rich region near a military base south of the shared border.

Col. Philip Aguer said Friday that the bombs were dropped late Thursday afternoon. He said two civilians were wounded in the bombings, which took place on the town of Laloba, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the Unity State capital of Bentiu in South Sudan.

The attacks came one day after Sudan announced it had accepted an agreement put forward by the African Union to return to talks with South Sudan Same day payday loans. The agreement demands both sides adhere to a cease-fire.

Major violence between the two sides has flared in recent weeks, pushing the region to the edge of all-out war.

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Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro said Spain would damage European and global growth if it misses budget-deficit targets and threatened to take over the accounts of regions that don

More Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, a sign the improvement in labor-market conditions may be stalling.

Jobless claims fell by 2,000 to 386,000 in the week ended April 14 from a revised 388,000 the prior period that was higher than initially estimated, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 47 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a drop to 370,000. Revisions to previous data have been larger than normal and the government is trying to determine the cause, a Labor Department spokesman said as the figures were released to the press.

The claims figures raise the possibility the payroll gains that have helped push unemployment down to a three-year low may cool, weighing on consumer spending. Federal Reserve officials, awaiting evidence of a more robust job market and economic growth, have said they

President Obama made a broad push Tuesday for increasing taxes on the wealthy and in particular proposed Buffett Rule.

His address to college students in Florida came on the heels of a White House report that laid out its case, arguing that the Buffett Rule would make the tax code fairer and make it harder for the very rich to lower their tax bills.

Quiz: What the rich really pay in taxes

"What drags our entire economy down is when the benefits of economic growth and productivity go only to the few … and the gap between those at the very, very top and everybody else keeps growing wider and wider," Obama said.

The Buffett Rule is a key talking point in Obama’s re-election bid. The general principle behind it is that millionaires and billionaires like investor Warren Buffett shouldn’t pay a lower percentage of their income in federal taxes than middle-class households.

Obama has even set a threshold for how much they should pay: At least 30% of their income.

Obama’s Buffett Rule: FAQ

Most millionaires today already pay a higher percentage of their income in federal taxes than the vast majority of all Americans. But roughly 25% of them end up with a lower effective tax rate than 10% of middle-income households, according to the Congressional Research Service.

And a very small number — fewer than 1,500 households in 2009, according to the IRS — end up owing no federal income tax at all.

Obama’s Buffett Rule is targeted specifically at those high-income households that are in a position to structure their income and engage in legal tax strategies to minimize their tax bite.

Millionaires who owe no federal income tax

"The idea behind the Buffett Rule is to have a tax on high-income earners who manage to avoid paying a large share of their income in taxes," Alan Krueger, director of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, said in a call with reporters.

They can do so if much of their income comes from capital gains and dividends — which are taxed at a lower rate than ordinary paychecks. The same is true if they have made tax-free or tax-sheltered investments.

And a number of other tax breaks on the books end up disproportionately benefiting high-income households.

Krueger asserted that the Buffett Rule would also make for good tax policy by making the tax code more efficient. That is, there would be less incentive for the wealthy to choose one investment or financial activity over another or to recharacterize their income simply to reduce their tax bills.

Tax experts, however, say the goals of the Buffett Rule could be accomplished more simply through a complete overhaul of the tax code.

Indeed, Obama initially proposed the Buffett Rule as a guiding principle for reform. But Senate Democrats are now pushing a bill to implement a version of the rule in today’s tax code. And the White House is now endorsing that push.

Tax reform is likely to be a long slog, and implementing a Buffett Rule now would be a "simple and common sense" step toward reform, said Jason Furman, the principal deputy director of the National Economic Council. 

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