Global stocks were set to rise on Friday morning, following a few days of turbulence related to political chaos in Libya.
U.S. stock index futures were higher with a little more than an hour before markets open, suggesting that stocks will rise at the start of trading. Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average were up 67 points or 0.6 per cent. Futures for the broader S&P 500 were up 9 points or 0.7 per cent.
In Europe, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 rose 0.9 per cent and Germany's DAX index rose 0.5 per cent in afternoon trading. U.K. gross domestic product in the fourth quarter was revised down, now showing a contraction of 0.6 per cent versus an earlier estimate of 0.5 per cent.
Revised figures showed that U.S. economic growth slowed to 2.8 per cent in the last quarter of the year. Economists had expected the numbers would show that the economy had expanded at an annualized rate of 3.3 per cent, versus an earlier estimate of 3.2 per cent.
Meanwhile, crude oil prices showed signs of stabilizing after Saudi Arabia increased its oil output by 700,000 barrels per day, to make up for the shortfall from tumbling production in Libya.
David Berman