U.S. stock market indexes made strong gains in Monday's early trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 advanced 1.4 percent while the NASDAQ jumped 1.6 percent.

European stock markets were sharply higher in afternoon trading. London's Financial Times 100 index and the CAC-40 in Paris moved up 1.6 percent, and the DAX in Frankfurt advanced eight-tenths of a percent.

Earlier in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index dropped one percent to close at 8,628. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up half a percent to end at 19,487.

The price of gold rose nearly $23 to trade at $1,874.80 an ounce.

The dollar was higher against the yen but declined compared to the euro.