Stock markets mostly rose while gold reached new highs on Tuesday, with expectations of US rate cuts to bolster the world's biggest economy offsetting political turbulence in Japan and France.

A steep downward revision to US job creation cemented expectations that the Federal Reserve would begin lowering its benchmark rate next week in a bid to boost growth.

US employment growth is likely to be revised down by 911,000 for the 12 months ending in March, official data showed.

After last month's big miss on US jobs creation, "these revisions suggest that jobs momentum is being lost from an even weaker position than originally thought," said analysts at ING.

Investors are now looking to consumer inflation data coming Thursday, since a hot reading could keep the Fed from cutting further as

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