LONDON (AP) — Stocks were being traded cautiously across global markets Tuesday as investors prepared for the start of the U.S. corporate earnings season and digested a mixed batch of European economic indicators.

The markets will get a feel for the health of corporate America as earnings reports start coming in. Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. will be the first major company to release results for the fourth quarter of 2012 on Tuesday after U.S. markets close.

Events during the quarter such as Superstorm Sandy, the presidential election, and worries about the narrowly avoided "fiscal cliff" could lead to some unexpected results.

By midafternoon in Europe, Germany's DAX was 0.1 percent lower at 7,723.00 while Britain's FTSE 100 was flat at 6,067.30. France's CAC-40 rose 0.4 percent to 3,720.34. The euro edged down 0.2 percent to $1.3086.

Wall Street opened slightly lower — both the Dow Jones industrial average and the broader S&P 500 were down 0.1 percent, to 13,361.29 and 1,459.76.

European investors were torn between two sets of economic indicators.

One showed that unemployment in the 17-country eurozone hit 11.8 percent in December, a record high and up from 11.7 percent the previous month. The figure highlights the huge economic challenge facing Europe — although financial market turmoil has subsided, the labor market continues to weaken.

But a separate report was more upbeat, showing business and consumer sentiment in the eurozone rose in December by more than analysts were expecting and that retail sales edged up in November. That suggests that the improvement in financial markets during those months helped economic activity stabilize.

Analysts warned, however, not to expect any imminent turnaround in the economy.

"While it looks like economic activity may have bottomed out around October, any recovery still looks a hard slog," said Howard Archer, an economist with HIS Global Insight.

Earlier, Japan's Nikkei 225 index tumbled 0.9 percent to 10,508.06 as the yen crept upward against the U.S. dollar. With the dollar down 0.5 percent at 87.39 yen, some investors sold export shares that had surged as the currency weakened in recent weeks. Toyota Motor Corp. fell 2 percent while Mazda Motor Corp. plunged 5 percent. Nintendo Co. shed 3.1 percent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.9 percent to 23,111.19. South Korea's Kospi lost 0.7 percent to 1,997.94. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand fell, while Malaysia and the Philippines rose. Mainland Chinese shares were mixed. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.6 percent to 4,690.20. Continued...