U.S. stock indexes are up sharply in midday trading Friday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is ahead 1.8 percent. The S&P 500 index is up 1.5 percent, while the NASDAQ composite index is ahead 1.3 percent.

Stocks closed markedly higher in Europe.

London's Financial Times index ended up 1.9 percent to close at 5,489. The CAC-40 in Paris finished ahead 2.8 percent to close at 3,171. The DAX index in Frankfurt jumped 3.6 percent to finish at 5,971.

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 $17.71 at $1,638.37 an ounce.

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