PARIS — Global stock markets stabilized on Tuesday amid hope that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece might still reach a last-minute deal with his country's international creditors, but Athens missed a deadline for a critical loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund.
Markets fell across the world on Monday, after the Greece government said that a referendum would be held Sunday on whether to accept the bailout terms offered by the so-called troika of international lenders: the I.M.F., the European Central Bank and a group representing European Union member states. Greece was supposed to have repaid roughly 1.6 billion euros, or $ 1.8 billion, to the I.M.F.
In Athens on Tuesday, the Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, told reporters that Greece would not make the I.M.F. payment. But when asked whether there was still a chance that Athens would reach an aid deal with its creditors before Tuesday's other key deadline — the midnight expiration of the country's bailout program — Mr. Varoufakis replied, "We hope so."
European markets declined at the opening, but expectations fanned by rumors in Brussels and Athens that Greece was preparing to propose a compromise led investors to square their bets as the day wore on, leaving indexes little changed.
"The big news today is that they're still talking," said Ronny Claeys, a strategist at KBC Asset Management in Brussels. "That's enough to calm the market."
American markets also stabilized. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 23 points, or 0.1 percent, to 17,619. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index gained five points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,063. The Nasdaq climbed 28 points, or 0.6 percent, to 4,986.
Shares of bond insurance companies fell sharply after Puerto Rico's governor called on creditors to restructure the U.S. territory's debt. Ambac Financial dropped 16 percent and MBIA fell 6 percent.
Still, despite Monday's slump, the S.&P. 500 remains only about 3 percent below its record close of 2,130.82 set May 21, and many investors remain confident the U.S. economy will maintain its recovery.
Greece's Debt Crisis Explained
The weak link in the 19-nation eurozone is struggling to tame its debt. On Tuesday, Greece missed an important payment to the International Monetary Fund.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index, which combines the shares of top companies in Germany, France and other countries in the eurozone, closed down 1.3 percent on Tuesday, after a 4.2 percent decline on Monday. In London, the benchmark FTSE 100 index fell 1.5 percent, after a 2 percent decline the previous day.
Earlier on Tuesday, Asian markets bounced back strongly. In China, where key indexes have gained more than 100 percent over the past year, the Shanghai composite index rose 5.5 percent, after falling more than 3 percent on Monday. The Tokyo benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average rose 0.6 percent.
With investors focused on the crisis in Greece, there was little market reaction to official data on Tuesday that showed consumer prices in the eurozone had risen 0.2 percent in June compared with a year earlier, and that the jobless rate in the same group of countries was little changed at 11.1 percent in May.
The bond market calmed after deep declines on Monday in which investors dumped the sovereign debt of so-called peripheral eurozone countries like Italy, Portugal and Spain, which are seen as the most vulnerable to market turmoil if Greece defaults. On Tuesday, bond yields, which move in the opposite direction to prices, fell across most of the eurozone as tensions eased.
The main exception, however, was the debt of Greece itself, which continued to trade at elevated levels.
Portraits From Greece as It Endures a Crisis
From a small island to the capital in Athens, here is a glimpse into some of the lives of Greeks as their country struggles to repay billions in debt.
In currency trading, the euro was down 0.3 percent at $ 1.1186 while the dollar fell 0.3 percent to 122.24 yen.
Government bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.35 percent from 2.33 percent a day earlier.
The price of oil rose for the first time in a week as negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program were extended, potentially delaying a return if Iranian crude to the market.
Benchmark U.S. crude rose $ 1.14 to close at $ 59.47 a barrel in New York. U.S. crude finished the month down 83 cents, or 1.4 percent. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, rose $ 1.58 to close at $ 63.59 a barrel in London.
Metals futures ended slightly lower. Gold fell $ 7.20 to $ 1,171.80 an ounce, silver lost 11 cents to settle at $ 15.55 an ounce and copper fell two cents to $ 2.62 a pound.
In other energy futures trading on the NYMEX, wholesale gasoline rose 6 cents to close at $ 2.090 a gallon; heating oil rose 5 cents to close at $ 1.887 a gallon; and natural gas rose 2.7 cents to close at $ 2.832 per 1,000 cubic feet.
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