LONDON — Stocks rose in Europe and on Wall Street Friday as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said his central bank stands ready to support the U.S. economy if needed and after a key growth figure came in better than feared.
Global markets have been rattled in recent weeks by signs that growth is losing momentum, particularly in the world's largest economy. On Friday, official data showed U.S. gross domestic product rose by 1.6 percent during the April-June period. That's way down from the earlier estimate of 2.4 percent but not as bad as the 1.4 percent expected by economists.
Bernanke acknowledged the outlook is uncertain, but said the Fed could buy more assets — thereby lowering market lending rates and helping the economy — if indicators deteriorate significantly. He stressed that the Fed still has plenty of tools with which to help the economy in case of need.
Released shortly after the U.S. growth data, the comments further helped sentiment in stock markets.
Britain's FTSE 100 stock index closed up 1.0 percent at 5,209.39, France's CAC-40 rose 0.8 percent to 3,507.44 and Germany's DAX increased 0.7 percent to 5,951.17.
Gains on Wall Street gathered pace. The Dow industrials average was up 1.2 percent at 10,100.43 and the Standard & Poor's 500 was 1.1 percent higher at 1,058.52.
Analysts said Bernanke appeared willing to leave the door open on all options in case growth slows sharply. However, the Fed's monetary policy tools may not prove very effective.
"In sum, don't expect any Fed action soon," said Paul Ashworth, analyst at Capital Economics.
The revised U.S. GDP data offered some comfort earlier. Because investor confidence has been hit by a run of bad data, there was some apprehension over their publication. While the figures still portray a slowing recovery, it also calmed the markets' darker fears.
"There are a couple of encouraging signs in this second report," Ashworth said.
He noted corporate profits were up and that the downward GDP revision was mostly due to lower inventory rebuilding and higher imports. Still, the outlook remains challenging.
"The second quarter wasn't as bad as the headline GDP figure looks, but, unfortunately, that doesn't mean the third quarter is going to be any better," Ashworth said.
In Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average recovered from early losses to close 1 percent higher at 8,991.06 on news that Prime Minister Naoto Kan was meeting reporters to discuss how the government will handle the yen's surge.
A pledge by Japan's finance minister to work more closely with the central bank to curb the yen's rise helped boost exporters. Sentiment was buoyed, also, by the government's report Friday that the jobless rate in July fell to 5.2 percent from 5.3 percent in June — the first decline in six months.
Chinese investors resumed buying to boost the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index by 0.3 percent to 2,610.74. But the gains were capped by mixed earnings from major companies and uncertainty over whether the government will loosen tight credit policies as the economy slows.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.1 percent to 20,597.35 while South Korea's Kospi dropped less than 0.1 percent. But shares in most other markets were higher, with Australia's S&P/ASX 200 up 0.3 percent and Taiwan's benchmark adding 0.4 percent.
In currencies, the dollar rose to 84.99 yen Friday from 84.28 yen in New York late Thursday. The euro rose to $1.2762 from $1.2702.
Benchmark crude for October delivery was up 64 cents at $74.00 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract settled at $73.36 on Thursday.
Associated Press writers Elaine Kurtenback in Shanghai, Shino Yuasa in Tokyo and researchers Bonnie Cao and Ji Chen in Beijing and Shanghai contributed to this report.