By Riva Gold 

Stocks were mostly higher Wednesday despite a downbeat session in Asia, boosted by a modest rebound in oil prices.

Futures pointed to a 0.2% opening gain for the S&P 500, while the Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.9% in morning trade, led by some of the week's worst performing sectors.

Oil and gas companies moved higher as Brent crude oil rose 0.7% to $46.83 a barrel. Oil had fallen sharply in the previous session after Saudi Arabia said it sees no chance of an output cap at a meeting concluding later Wednesday in Algiers, but market participants appeared to take heart in the prospect of a more definitive plan to curb production in November.

Europe's banking sector also showed signs of a nascent recovery from a rough start to the week, with shares of Deutsche Bank up 2.6% after Chief Executive John Cryan said the bank never asked the German government to intervene or financially assist in a dispute with the U.S. Department of Justice.

The German lender is still down around 5% so far this week, having touched its lowest price in decades amid concerns about its capital position.

Shares of Royal Bank of Scotland Group initially fell around 3% on Wednesday after news the U.K. lender agreed to pay $1.1 billion to a U.S. regulator, but later recovered to trade up 1.1%.

Investors are watching the health of the European banking sector closely. The Euro Stoxx Banks index is down 28% so far this year. Recent falls in bank shares are particularly worrisome in Europe, where banks constitute a significant share of direct lending into the economy, said Jamie Cox, managing director at Harris Financial Group.

"It's a very ugly situation," he said. On top of the potential fines, "interest rates globally are low and it doesn't appear there are prospects of them going up anytime soon--when you're a financial institution and you live off the spread, it's difficult."

Investors largely expect the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan to ease policy further in the coming months, while expectations for the Federal Reserve to raise rates in December have fallen in recent sessions.

Fed-fund futures, used by investors to bet on central bank policy, suggest a less than 50% chance of higher interest rates by December, according to data from CME Group.

Investors may get more detail on the course of interest rates later Wednesday in comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen.

Ms. Yellen is set to testify before the House Financial Services Committee about financial regulation.

Earlier, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 1.3%, leading wider Asian bourses lower. Investors were concerned about an earlier decline in the price of oil and the impact of negative interest rates on Japanese banks.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.1%, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.3% and shares in Australia were little changed.

In currencies, the dollar inched slightly higher against most major currencies, with the WSJ Dollar Index up 0.2%. The euro was down 0.1% against the dollar at $1.1203, while the dollar gained 0.4% against the yen to Yen100.7350.

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose to 1.575% from 1.556% on Tuesday after eight consecutive sessions of declines, its longest losing streak since the middle of June. German bund yields were little changed at minus 0.143%.

Jenny Hsu contributed to this article.

Write to Riva Gold at riva.gold@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 28, 2016 05:43 ET (09:43 GMT)