The market is open and stocks are surging.In early trade on Friday, the Dow was up more than 200 points, the S&P 500 was up 24 points, and the Nasdaq was up 59 points.
All of the major stock indexes were up more than 1.2%.
The rally in stocks comes at the end of what has been a choppy week for the market, with the action Wednesday, especially in the bond market, getting pretty volatile.
On Friday morning, we've gotten housing starts data that came in better than expected.
Consumer confidence data from the University of Michigan also beat expectations.
US stocks are taking their lead from stocks in Europe, which are green across the board on Friday, lead by gains in Italy, Spain, and France, where stocks are climbing more than 2%.
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