Investing.com -- European stocks surged in early trading on Friday on a combination of the U.K. election result, signs of an imminent trade deal between the U.S. and China, and the Federal Reserve's plans to prevent a repeat of the year-end volatility seen in 2018.
By 3:10 AM ET (0810 GMT), the midcap U.K. FTSE 250 index was up 4.9%, while the more global FTSE 100 was up 0.9%. Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS), Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) and Barclays (LON:BARC) all posted gains of nearly 10%.
The benchmark Euro Stoxx 600 index was up 1.4% at 413.26. The trade-sensitive German DAX was up 1.2%, led by automotive stocks Volkswagen (DE:VOWG_p) and Continental (DE:CONG).