Stock markets higher after US Fed pledge?

?Asian stocks have rallied in early trading on Wednesday from their downward trend earlier in the week after the US Federal Reserve promised to keep interest rates near the zero level “at least through to mid-2013.”?

Europe’s stock markets also opened higher after overnight increases on Wall Street and Asian markets, which saw the Hong Kong rebound with a rise of 3.27 percent while Tokyo climbed 1.11 percent.

Global stock markets have been plummeting since early August following an unprecedented US credit rating downgrade.?The FTSE 100 index gained 1.7 percent, Frankfurt’s DAX jumped 2.2 percent and Paris’s CAC-40 increased by 1.9 percent.

At close of trading on Tuesday the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 3.9 percent at 11,239 while S&P’s 500-stock index rose 4.7 percent to 1,172.