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London - European stock markets closed up and Wall Street rallied on Tuesday as US company quarterly results began flowing in and investors awaited a key meeting of the Federal Reserve.
Wall Street moved higher following solid earnings reports from DuPont and Pfizer, but Twitter shares plunged on worries over subscriber growth.
About 35 minutes into trade, the Dow stood at 16 887.25, up 0.41%.
The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.56% to 1 972.60, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 0.93% to 4 527.85.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 index advanced 0.61% to 6 402.17 points.
Frankfurt's DAX 30 jumped 1.86% to 9 068.19 points and in Paris the CAC 40 climbed just 0.39% to 4 112.67, dragged down by drugmaker Sanofi's 10.64% nosedive.
Madrid surged 1.75% and Milan spiked 2.35%, recovering from a shaky Monday after the European Central Bank failed nine Italian banks on stress tests.
The euro rose against the dollar and British pound.
The rouble fell to a new record low against the euro and dollar - at 54.04 to the European currency and 42.50 to the greenback.
In Stockholm, the Swedish central bank set a zero base interest rate after cutting its key rate by a quarter of a percentage point in a drive to push up low inflation bordering on deflation.
Europe's main stock markets had fallen sharply on Monday over negative German business data.
Asian equity markets ended mixed on Tuesday ahead of the US Federal Reserve's next policy meeting, which will be scrutinised for an idea of what its plans are for interest rates in the world's biggest economy.
"The markets are moving along with the company reports, but are still in a wait-and-see mode before the Fed meeting," said Jean-Philippe Muge of private wealth manager Cyrus Conseil.
While bank policymakers are widely tipped to bring an end to the Fed's vast asset-buying programme, traders will be monitoring what they have to say about interest rates.
"The real question is the prospect of rate hikes. The end of QE (quantitative easing) is already pretty much priced in," Muge said.
Chemical company DuPont rose 0.2% as third-quarter earnings jumped more than 50% to $433m.
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer advanced 0.5% as earnings came in at $2.7bn, up 2.9% from the prior year. Stronger sales in vaccines and some other products offset the negative hit from patent expirations on other medications.
Shares in Twitter meanwhile sank more than 12% as disappointing user numbers overshadowed a doubling of income in its third quarter and sparked several analyst downgrades.
In foreign exchange deals, the euro strengthened against the dollar, to $1.2744 from $1.2699 late in New York on Monday.
The European single currency edged up to 78.86 British pence from 78.77p.
The British pound firmed to $1.6158 from $1.6119 on Monday.
On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold dipped to $1 227.98 an ounce from $1 228.75 an ounce on Monday.
Shares in Standard Chartered dived 7.58% after the bank issued a profit warning and said it would "remain watchful" in India and China after a sharp fall in quarterly pre-tax profits.
Lloyds Banking Group meanwhile gave up 2.44% to 73.50p after the British state-rescued lender said it aims to shed 9 000 jobs and close 150 branches over the next three years to cut costs.
Alongside news that it had improved profits, LBG said it would cut about one-tenth of its workforce as customers switch to banking online.
Shares in French drugmaker Sanofi plunged 10.64% to €74.53 because net profit slipped in the third quarter, the group was cautious about the US market for diabetes treatments, and investors are concerned about criticism of the chief executive for living in Boston.
Novartis saw its stock price shoot up 1.97% to $91.99, as the pharmaceuticals giant said strong sales of new products had helped push its net profit up 45% in the third quarter, despite competition from copycat generic drugs.
