Stock markets in Europe and futures for the main US indexes climbed after the US biggest aluminium producer Alcoa’s (NYSE:AA) quarterly results topped expectations, showing earnings per share of 24 cents.
The report kicked off the earnings season in the US, inspiring optimism in the markets in addition to comments from Portugal’s finance minister Fernando Teixeira, who stated that the debt-laden country is trying to avoid a bailout from the European Union.
In another positive development in Europe’s debt situation, Japan pledged to buy bonds from a European rescue fund to support Europe tackle its fiscal problems.
Major banks were doing well after Citigroup (NYSE:C) upgraded HSBC (LON:HSBA) to “buy” from “hold”.
The UK’s FTSE 100 stood 1.25% above the opening level in late afternoon with builders’ merchant Wolseley (LON:WOS) and chipmaker ARM Holdings (LON:ARM) leading the way with gains of 7% and 6% respectively.
Elsewhere in Europe, France’s CAC 40 rose 1.1%, Germany’s DAX climbed 0.8% and Spain’s IBEX 35 advanced 1.25%.
Futures for the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indexes climbed 0.5% in pre-market.
3M (NYSE:MMM), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Travelers Company (NYSE:TRV) led the Dow Jones components with gains of 1%.
AT&T (NYSE:T) and DuPont (NYSE:DD) declined 1.8% and 1.5% respectively.