News that European leaders completed a debt-relief deal for Greece and expand the continent's bailout fund encouraged investors, and stocks soared around the world Thursday.

U.S. stocks made strong gains in midday New York trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.6 percent, with the S&P 500 up 2.9 percent and the NASDAQ 2.8 percent.

European stocks ended sharply higher.

London's Financial Times index jumped 2.9 percent to close at 5,714. The CAC-40 in Paris soared 6.3 percent to end at 3,369. The DAX index in Frankfurt advanced 5.4 percent to finish at 6,338.

Earlier in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index gained 2 percent to finish at 8,927. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 3.3 percent to finish the day's trading at 19,689.

The price of gold increased $19.68 to trade at $1,744.31 an ounce.

The dollar fell against both the euro and yen.