Stocks: Europe high in the air - Wall Street loses steam

It was a really good day on the European stock markets, and the investors can largely thank the U.S. central bank chairman Ben Bernanke for that. In the U.S. the stock market flew out of the starting blocks from the morning in New York, but the air is four hours later gone a little out of the balloon.

Europe's stock markets Friday reached up to the highest level in 15 months. The Single European index Stoxx Europe 600 rose 1.3 percent to 275 - the highest closing price since 1 June 2011.

The German DAX rose 1.4 percent, The London FTSE 100 rose 1.6 percent.

The reason is on the other side of the Atlantic, where Ben Bernanke and his colleagues at the Federal Reserve on Thursday evening sparked the printing press and promised the markets that it will buy up mortgage securities for 40 billion dollar each month until the wheels once again are spinning under the U.S. economy.

The crisis must be shelved - whatever the cost.
"This kind of liquidity helps the market much. If we get good news from the European Meeting in Cyprus (ECOFIN meeting), we would expect this direction will gain momentum in the next few days," said Theodore Krintas, portfolio manager at Attica Wealth Management in Athens, to Bloomberg News.

On Wall Street shares started as lightning and thunder, but going on the day, the shares fell back slightly. Dow Jones is at 19.30 o'clock for an increase of 0.2 percent, S&P 500 rising 0.3 percent, while the Nasdaq is 0.9 percent up.