U.S. stock indexes are up in early trading Friday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index are both ahead 1.4 percent, while the NASDAQ composite index is up 1.2 percent.

Stocks are up sharply in afternoon trading in Europe.

London's Financial Times index is up 1.4 percent, while the CAC-40 in Paris is ahead 1.8 percent. The DAX index in Frankfurt is up 2.6 percent.

Tokyo's Nikkei index lost a fraction of a percent to finish at 8,679.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained one quarter of a percent to finish the day's trading at 18,026.

Gold is trading up $25.77 at $1,646.44 an ounce.

The dollar is trading down against both the euro and yen.