Sawt Falasteen - Stocks rally on upbeat US data

Tokyo closed up two percent and eurozone indices neared gains of one percent in early afternoon deals.

However, reports that Washington could block the export of artificial intelligence chips to China weighed on sentiment.

"Upbeat sentiment about signs of resilience for the... American economy is over-riding worries about China's flagging recovery," noted Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Wall Street on Tuesday cheered news that a closely watched gauge of US consumer confidence had hit its highest level since January last year, while new home sales surged in May and orders for big-ticket manufactured items rose again.

The figures tempered fears that the world's top economy could tip into recession because of more than a year of rate hikes.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday criticised the European Central Bank over its own hiking of rates, warning "the cure risks proving more damaging than the disease".

Meloni was reacting to ECB President Christine Lagarde's warning Tuesday that the bank would "continue to increase rates in July" unless there was "a material change to the outlook".

The ECB has lifted borrowing costs at the fastest pace ever over the past year in a bid to cool inflation after Russia's war in Ukraine sent energy and food prices surging.

While sky-high energy prices that drove inflation up last year have come down, ECB officials are now concerned about the impact of rising wages as workers demand higher salaries to cover rising costs.

- Key figures around 1115 GMT -

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.7 percent at 7,510.63 points

Frankfurt - DAX: UP 0.8 percent at 15,980.40

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.9 percent at 7,277.04

EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.9 percent at 4,342.06

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 2.0 percent at 33,193.99 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.1 percent at 19,172.05 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: FLAT at 3,189.38 (close)

New York - Dow: UP 0.6 percent at 33,926.74 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0951 from $1.0964 on Tuesday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2687 from $1.2748

Dollar/yen: UP at 144.07 yen from 144.06 yen

Euro/pound: UP at 86.30 pence from 85.95 pence

Brent North Sea crude: UP 0.1 percent at $72.33 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.1 percent at $67.74 per barrel

S.Barghouti--SF-PST