LONDON (AP) – The latest on the turmoil in global financial markets (all times local):
9:00 a.m.
European stock markets are registering big gains at the start of the trading week, flying in the slipstream of a massive 7 percent increase in Japan’s Nikkei index.
In early trading, all Europe’s stock markets are trading sharply higher with the Stoxx 600 index up 2.9 percent at 321.30.
The buoyant tone in global stock markets was set earlier during Asian trading hours, when soft Japanese economic growth figures stoked talk of further stimulus by the country’s economic authorities.
That weakened the Japanese yen to the likely relief of the country’s exporters – the dollar is up 0.6 percent at 113.90 yen. The yen’s weakness was one of the reasons why the Nikkei ended 7.2 percent higher at 16,022.58.
Markets have had a rocky start to the year as fears have grown over the state of the global economy.