U.S. stocks showed moderate gains in Thursday's early trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up two-tenths of one percent, the S&P 500 gained three-tenths of a percent while the NASDAQ was up half a percent.

European stock prices also showed gains Thursday afternoon. London's Financial Times index rose 2 percent. The CAC-40 in Paris also advanced 2 percent, and the DAX index in Frankfurt moved 1.25 percent higher.

Tokyo's Nikkei index gained 1.7 percent to finish at 8,522. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 5.7 percent to finish the day's trading at 17,172.

The price of gold fell nearly $5 to trade at $1,636.05 an ounce.

The dollar is down against the yen but gained value compared to the euro.