Europe is on a charge
Friday morning's movements mark a departure from yesterday, when shares slumped towards the end of the day, following ECB president Mario Draghi's proclamation that he doesn't expect the bank to cut rates again any time soon. Stocks had initially jumped as much as 4% on the ECB's announcement, but fell sharply during Draghi's press conference to end the day in the red.
However, on Friday morning, investors seem to be giving Draghi the thumbs up, and Europe's biggest indices are all seeing gains, with some markets up more than 3%.
Just after 9:10 a.m. GMT (4:10 a.m. ET), Italy's FTSE MIB is the biggest winner, gaining 3.12% to trade at 18,686 points. There have also been big gains for Spain's IBEX 35 (up 2.11%) and the DAX in Germany (up 1.9%), which has risen despite Germany officially sinking back into deflation last month. The Euro STOXX 600 broad index is up around 1.6%. Here's how some of the continent's biggest indexes look:
- Britain's FTSE 100 - up 1.56%
- France's CAC 40 - up 2.37%
- The Netherlands AEX - up 2.16%
- Portugal's PSI 20 - up 1.93%
- Euro STOXX 50 - up 2.13%
Elsewhere in the markets, the euro is slipping against the dollar, and is off 0.46% to trade at $1.1126, paring gains seen on Thursday afternoon.
Both major crude benchmarks have popped this morning, with WTI up 1.9% to $38.58 (£27.03) per barrel, and Brent crude up 1.5% to $40.65 (£28.48).