European Stocks Are Surging

Here's the scorecard:

France's CAC 40: +2.36%

Germany's DAX: +1.93%

UK's FTSE 100: +1.02%

Spain's IBEX: +2.22%

Italy's FTSE MIB: +1.82%

Asian markets mostly rose before close. Japan's Nikkei climbed 2.32%, making up for losses earlier in the week. Hong Kong's Hang Seng also climbed 1.09%, while China's Shanghai Composite was down just a smidgen, 0.11% lower. 

US futures are solidly higher: The Dow is up 211 points and the S&P 500 is 26.75 points higher. 

In the UK, we've already seen a major boost to retail sales Thursday morning. Later today there's initial jobless figures from the US, as well as Markit's PMI figures at 2.45 p.m. GMT. Analysts are expecting another acceleration in the services PMI, to 56.9, which would signal strong growth.