Japan's Nikkei was up in morning trade, a day before the country opens the Olympic Games, which were delayed from last year due to the pandemic.
The S&P 500 gained 0.8% and London's FTSE 100 closed up 1.5%.
Commodities were mixed on the London Metal Exchange.
China's NDRC reportedly asked local governments to step up commodity price monitoring and management of expectations, Marex's Alastair Munro noted.
Copper closed up slightly, up 0.15%.
Meanwhile the International Copper Study Group said preliminary data for the first four months of 2021 showed an apparent surplus of about 70,000 tonnes.
Gold was similar to this point yesterday, around US$1,802 an ounce on the spot market.
"Gold may have found sellers, but the same is not true of silver, where XAGUSD printed a bullish reversal - follow-through buying today will be the focal point, and takes this to the 5-day EMA and a close above here suggests risks of a squeeze into $25.50/oz," Pepperstone head of research Chris Weston said.
Finally among the majors, Fresnillo lost 0.8% in London and Newmont was off 0.13% in New York ahead of releasing its second quarter results later today.
