U.S. stock markets made strong gains in early trading Thursday, rebounding from a sell-off in the previous session as a new economic data indicated U.S. companies are laying off fewer workers.

The U.S. government said first-time claims for jobless benefits fell to a four-month low in the past week. It was the fewest number of new applications since early April. Major U.S. stock indexes rose more than one-percent after the market opened.

European stock markets also turned positive, after an earlierr sell-off particularly in bank shares because of concerns about the sector's exposure to indebted European governments. French central bank chief Christian Noyer tried to reassure investors about the health of French commercial banks, saying their recent results show the sector is financially solid.

Asian markets fell earlier in the day.

U.S. President Barack Obama was due to travel to the Midwestern state of Michigan Thursday to tour a high-tech industrial facility and give a speech about encouraging innovating technologies to create domestic jobs.

Mr. Obama met with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on Wednesday to discuss how to reduce the huge U.S. budget deficit and how to respond to the euro zone debt crisis.

Global markets had rallied on Tuesday after the Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank, announced it would keep its key interest rate between zero and one-quarter of a percent until at least 2013. But new concerns about weak economic growth in the U.S. and reports that France might lose its top AAA credit rating wiped out those gains on Wednesday.