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 on Thursday.

U.S. stocks made strong gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.9 percent to close at 12,209. The S&P 500 moved up 3.4 percent to end at 1,285 while the NASDAQ advanced 3.3 percent to end at 2,739.

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 rose more than $18 to trade at $1,742.82 an ounce.

The dollar fell against both the euro and yen.