Wall Street, Europe shares extend gains

An encouraging start to earnings season helped US stocks rebound on Wednesday from five days of losses that pushed the S&P 500 below a key technical level.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 89.46 points, or 0.70 percent, to 12,805.39 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 10.12 points, or 0.74 percent, to 1,368.71. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 25.24 points, or 0.84 percent, to 3,016.46.

European stocks rose, halting a week-long slide as recently battered banks rallied, although the rebound was seen as technical and could be short-lived, with investors bracing for a key Italian government bond auction on Thursday.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares closed 0.8 percent higher at 1,033.80 points, after losing 5.4 percent in four sessions.

In Tokyo, Nikkei share average dropped 0.8 percent to mark its seventh consecutive session of losses as fresh concerns about Spanish and Italian finances and slowing global growth sapped investor appetite.The Nikkei was down 79.28 points at 9,458.74.

The broader Topix index lost 0.9 percent to finish at 805.84. Nearly 2.1 billion shares changed hands on the main board, up from 1.93 billion shares today.