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European shares recover on N. American gains
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The Associated Press- Bank stocks recovered their poise Friday and helped European stock markets push higher as investors assessed the impact of a short-selling ban on financial shares in four eurozone countries.
The advance in Europe follows big gains on Wall Street Thursday that helped support most markets in Asia.
On Thursday, North American markets finished sharply higher as traders put cash into stocks that had sunk to attractive levels following recent meltdowns.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 340.91 points, or 2.79 per cent, at 12,539.80, while the Dow Jones industrial average surged 423.37 points, or 3.95 per cent, to 11,143.31.
However, wild swings over recent days, with shares often changing direction every few hours, highlight how volatile trading is at the moment amid concerns over the global economy and the levels of debt in both the U.S. and Europe.
In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was up 1.1 per cent at 5,221 points, while Germany's DAX was 1.9 percent higher at 5,908. The CAC-40 in France was 1.2 per cent higher at 3,126 even after data showed the French economy did not grow in the second quarter.
Wall Street was poised for a modest rise after Thursday's big gains — Dow futures at 8 a.m. ET were up 0.5 percent at 11,141 while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index futures were up a similar amount at 1,174.
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