Europe's main stock markets continued to make strong gains this afternoon after Wall Street markets also opened higher.
Dublin's ISEQ closed up around 5%, as did London's FTSE. Paris gained 6%.
Earlier, Europe's main stock markets rose strongly at this morning's opening, following large gains in Asia and on Wall Street overnight.
In the US, the White House and congressional leaders struck a deal today on an economic stimulus plan aimed at reviving flagging growth including checks sent out to 117 million US families.
'We'll bring it to the floor at the earliest date so the checks will be in the mail,' said House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, after the agreement with the Republican White House was announced.
The bipartisan plan developed in the past week is aimed at staving off recession with tax rebates and other measures including business tax breaks.
Earlier reports said the deal was worth an estimated $140bn.
In early trading, Dublin's ISEQ was up by more than 4%, as were the Paris and Frankfurt markets. London's FTSE was almost 3% ahead.
The US government yesterday outlined a plan to rescue bond insurers and stave off a fresh round of billion-dollar writedowns.
US stock index futures pointed to modest gains on Wall Street later. New York's three main stock indices closed over 2% higher last night ending a five-day run of losses.
The late rally followed a day of volatile trading, in which values had fallen by a similar amount earlier in the session.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged widespread international fears of a recession, but urged business leaders to have confidence in the US economy.
