Investing.com - U.S. stocks padded morning session gains in Friday trade, following the lead of European issues as hopes for a concerted effort to address euro-zone debt surrounded a summit of the region’s finance ministers.
In late afternoon U.S. trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.97% to 11,769.70, the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 1.21% to 2,629.98, and the S&P 500 advanced 1.6% to trade at 1,234.84.
Finance ministers from the euro-zone’s 17 nations convened in Brussels Friday to discuss boosting the current USD607 billion European Financial Stability Facility, but a rift remained between Germany and France on how best to maximize the fund’s impact.
France has pushed for the use of additional money to come from the European Central Bank, while Germany argued that such a move would violate an EU treaty prohibiting the financing of governments.
“We will stick to the situation as it is in the treaty, that the central bank is not available for state financing,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said before Friday’s meeting.
Last week officials from both countries set Sunday as a deadline for formulating a plan, but announced adding a second meeting next Wednesday to formally outline details of an agreement.
Meanwhile, European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Olli Rehn, said Friday that Greece would be receiving its next tranche of aid in November, provided that the Greek Parliament passes a savings and reform package as promised.
By the end of Friday’s European session, France’s CAC 40 added 2.83% to 3,171.34, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 1.93% to 5,488.65, and Germany’s DAX advanced 3.55% to close at 5,970.96.
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Fast food giant McDonald’s Corp. was among the day’s leaders, with shares gaining 3.2% after the restaurant chain reported a 9% rise in earnings due to strong sales in North American and Europe.
Financial issues mirrored gains by their European counterparts, with Morgan Stanley up 1.4%, Bank of America Corp. higher by 0.2% and JP Morgan Chase & Co. adding 0.7%.
General Electric Co. and Microsoft Corp., however, suffered losses after both firms reported their quarterly earnings results. GE fell 1.98% and Microsoft shed 0.2%.
Honeywell International Inc. surged 5.5% after the aerospace company reported a 44% rise in earnings.
Finance Ministers from all 27 European countries were set to join euro-zone ministers in Brussels on Saturday, followed by the additional summit on October 26.