Markets move into positive territory

U.S. stock indexes turned up Tuesday morning after the Federal Reserve said it would begin to purchase asset-backed and unsecured short-term debt.

Markets were buoyed by the move, which would puts movement back in a frozen commercial paper market worth about $1.6 trillion.

In early Tuesday trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 53.28 points, or 0.54 percent, to 10,008.78. The Standard and Poor's 500 gained 0.47 percent, 5 points, to 1,061.89. The Nasdaq composite index gained 1.77 points, 0.1 percent, to 1,864.73, up 0.1 percent.

The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury bond fell 20/32 to yield 3.532 percent.

The dollar was mixed. The euro rose to $1.3686, compared to $1.3519 Monday. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar rose to 102.42 yen, up from 101.61 yen.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei average lost 317.19 points to 10,155.90, off 3.03 percent.