European Markets up; U.S. Stock Futures down

European shares gained in early trading Monday morning, tracking a late rally in Wall Street Friday, after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke raised hopes for more economic stimulus.

At 0706 GMT (3:06 a.m. ET), the FTSEurofirst index of top European shares was up 0.7 percent at 925.81 points, after falling 0.7 percent Friday. The index has lost more than 17 percent so far in 2011.

Trading volume was lighter than usual, with London markets closed for a bank holiday.

Major banks gaining included Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX), Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) and UBS (UBSN.VX), up between 2.9 percent and 3.4 percent.

It's one of these days when you go back to the underlying valuations of the companies - and say it looks good. We have oversold this market. It's a bounceback from lower prices, not based on anything fundamental. Bernanke has pushed it back to the politicians, Justin Urquhart Stewart, at Seven Investment Management, told Reuters.

U.S. stock index futures opened slightly lower Sunday as traders geared up for another turbulent week while assessing the impact of Hurricane Irene that passed with less damage than feared.

S&P 500 futures fell 3 points and were in line with fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures and Nasdaq 100 futures were unchanged.