Global Markets Rally As ECB Signals Stimulus, Silicon Valley Bluechips Lead Wall Street Gains

European and Asian stocks rallied higher Friday as the European Central Bank (ECB) said it would consider more stimulus to revive Europe’s flagging economy.

Sentiment in major world markets improved after ECB Chief Mario Draghi's comments Thursday that the central bank was ready to adjust "the size, composition and duration" of its quantitative easing program, reports said.

European stocks carried their forward momentum for the second day on the ECB news. France's CAC 40 rose 2.8 percent and Germany's DAX gained 3 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 climbed 1.6 percent. The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 2.31 percent.

German manufacturing grew the least in five months in October, with companies citing lower demand in Russia and China, according to Bloomberg. The latest Purchasing Managers’ Index from Markit Economics showed a factory index fell to 51.6 from 52.3 in September.

U.S. stock futures were up after tech majors Amazon Inc., Alphabet Inc. (Google) and Microsoft Corp. posted strong quarterly results on Thursday. Futures on the S&P 500 and Dow Jones were trading up at about 0.9 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq index was trading higher at 1.5 percent.

South Korea’s Kospi grew 0.9 percent after preliminary estimates showed that South Korea's economy had grown at its fastest clip in five years, with GDP up 1.2 percent in the third quarter.

Asian stocks closed sharply higher Friday, with shares in Japan leading the region. The Nikkei 225 rose 2.11 percent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 1.34 percent and China's Shanghai Composite closed 1.3 percent higher. India’s benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was also up 0.67 percent.