Europe Rallies, Futures Higher - Cyprus Finance Minister Press Conference In Moscow Now Canceled

Wikimedia CommonsCape Gkreko, CyprusThe story once again is the crisis in Cyprus, where banks are still closed, as local politicians must find a way to come up with billions of euros in order to properly capitalize the country's banks, and allow them to maintain ECB liquidity.

In the meantime, European markets are up. Italy is up 0.8%.

(Correction: Earlier we mentioned that Nikkei had surged. It is closed, and the quote was old. Our apologies.)

US futures are modestly higher, as Cyprus still hasn't really been felt outside some peripheral European markets (Greece, Italy, etc.).

And the Cyprus Finance Minister is in Moscow, where he will be holding a press conference at 6 AM ET, according to Dow Jones. Update: The press conference has now been canceled according to Dow Jones, citing the Cyprus Embassy. In the meantime, talks with the Russians remain ongoing.

Later on today? It's FOMC day and Bernanke will be giving a press conference, where he's likely to make the case for continued easing.

In the UK, George Osborne presents the country's budget at 8:30 AM ET.