Oil slipped towards $77 a barrel on Tuesday, held down by a firmer dollar, but trade was thin ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday and data that was expected to show crude stockpiles rising in the United States.

The dollar was broadly higher on Tuesday as investors sold currencies associated with risk on concerns about the banking system while looking ahead to data on the outlook for economic growth.

Sales of previously owned homes jumped in October to the highest level in more than 2-1/2 years as buyers rushed to take advantage of a popular tax credit, a survey showed.

Global stocks began the week in the green Monday, with gold prices hitting a new record high above $1,167 an ounce. Experts told CNBC risk aversion is coming back despite the rise in shares.

China should immediately halt some of its real estate stimulus policies, or risk inflating a bubble that in its bursting would wreak financial and even social trouble, a central bank newspaper said.

A senior U.S. Federal Reserve official said the central bank should keep alive its mortgage-related assets purchase program beyond a planned end-date to help the economy recover from a painful recession.

Oil prices rose Monday as strong U.S. housing data pressured the dollar and lifted expectations an economic rebound will bolster fuel demand.

The dollar fell against a basket of currencies Monday after comments from a Federal Reserve official reinforced expectations U.S. interest rates would stay low for some time.

As millions of Americans struggle to hold on to their homes, Wall Street has found a way to make money from the mortgage mess.

Australian building materials maker James Hardie Industries says full-year earnings would meet the top of market forecasts as the U.S. housing market, the core of its business, hits bottom.

Designed to help low-income people afford to buy houses, the Federal Housing Administration's is now insuring houses for increasingly well-off buyers, says the New York Times.

D.R. Horton, the No. 2 U.S. homebuilder, reported a much larger-than-expected quarterly loss on Friday, sending its shares down nearly 7 percent even though it also said orders increased.

It is "not quite time yet" to raise interest rates in the U.S., Charles Plosser, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, told CNBC Thursday.

Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dropped to their lowest levels since May, Freddie Mac reported on Thursday.

The auctions are seen as both a way to attract bargain-hunting buyers still on the fence on whether to buy and get the condos sold quickly.