REUTERS/Yuri GripasUS President Barack Obama (C) dances with participants during the 92nd annual National Christmas Tree Lighting on the Ellipse near the White House in Washington December 4, 2014. World markets are in the green early Monday, extending a recovery that follows a slump in oil prices and the dramatic slide of the Russian ruble.
"Overall the concerns (about the plunge in oil prices, Russia and Greece) are fading into the background a bit," Sybren Brouwer, head of equity strategy at ABN Amro, told Reuters.
Here's the scorecard, so far:
France's CAC 40 is up 0.97%
Germany's DAX is up 0.72%
Britain's FTSE 100 is up 1.00%
Spain's IBEX is up 0.43%
Italy's FTSE MIB is up 1.09%
Asian markets closed in the green. Japan's Nikkei closed up 0.08% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed up 1.26%.
US futures are also up. The Dow is up 38 points, the S&P 500 is up 3.6 points, and NASDAQ is up 9.75 points.
In Europe, December consumer confidence will be released at 3 p.m. GMT.
And later in the US, the National Association of Realtors will publish existing home sales data at 3 p.m. GMT (10 a.m. ET). Economists estimate the pace of sales fell 1.1% in November to an annualised rate of 5.20 million.