LONDON — World stocks rose today ahead of expected gains on Wall Street as confidence appeared to be returning to money markets.

Britain's FTSE 100 index of leading shares was up 88.49 points, or 2.2 percent, at 4,151.50, while Germany's DAX was 52.53 points, or 1.1 percent, higher at 4,833.86. The CAC-40 in France was 59.25 points, or 1.8 percent, stronger at 3,389.17.

Those gains follow the 3.6 percent advance on Japan's Nikkei 225 to 9,005.59 and the 5.3 percent jump in the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong to 15,323.01.

Wall Street was also headed for a higher open Monday ammid as investors cheered signs that global credit markets are thawing even as they awaited a batch of quarterly earnings to see how companies are weathering the financial crisis.

Ahead of the market's open and the release of earnings reports, Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 251, or 2.9 percent, to 9,022. On Friday, the Dow ended 127 points lower.

Stock markets have been buoyed by the fall in interbank lending rates in light of the flurry of governments efforts to put money into banks over the last couple of weeks, and by coordinated interest rate reductions and massive liquidity boosts by central banks.

"It's crucial for the stability of financial system that money market rates, effectively the lifeblood for markets, are coming down," said Neil Mackinnon, chief economist at ECU Group.

"We've moved away from outright meltdown on the back of the measures taken by governments and central banks and there is some semblance of stability returning to the markets," he added.

Data earlier confirmed that money market rates are falling. The interbank lending rate for three-month dollar loans fell for the sixth day running Monday and by its biggest daily amount since January. It dropped 0.36 percent to 4.06 percent, while the three-month Euro Interbank Offered Rate, or Euribor, fell almost 0.05 percentage points to 5.00 percent.

Overnight, the Hong Kong interbank offered rate, known as Hibor, for three-month loans tumbled to 3.66 percent from 4.19 as the territory's de facto central bank pumped more money into the financial system.

Abnormally high interbank lending rates have been a sign of distress in credit markets and been the catalyst for the crisis in the financial markets over recent weeks. High interbank rates can choke off credit to businesses and individuals, hurting the economy.

Even if Libor rates continue to decline, analysts say stock markets will not be out of the woods given the sharp economic slowdown likely to occur over the coming months, which will become more and more evident as companies report their latest earnings.

"Volatility in financial markets is unlikely to diminish while investors worry about the health of the financial system and the risk of a recession and leveraged investors scramble to close positions," said Tony Dolphin, director of economics and asset allocation at Henderson Global Investors.

Big beneficiaries Monday were financial stocks, particularly on Britain's FTSE, with Lloyds TSB PLC and Royal Bank of Scotland PLC both 3 percent higher. The biggest gainer in Europe was Amsterdam-listed ING Groep NV after the Dutch government injected euro10 billion ($13.4 billion) into the financial company over the weekend. Its shares were up 23 percent, almost recouping most of last Friday's losses.

Energy stocks, such as BP PLC and Royal Dutch Shell, were also up as oil prices rose another $2.37 a barrel to over $74.22 on mounting talk that OPEC will cut production at the end of this week in an attempt to shore up prices that have fallen by 50 percent in three months.

Earlier in Asia, South Korea's Kospi climbed about 2.3 percent after the government's announcement Sunday to provide up to $100 billion to secure banks' maturing foreign currency debt and another $30 billion for the banks. Financials led the way, with Hana Financial Group up 8.4 percent and KB Financial Group Inc., the holding company for top South Korean lender Kookmin Bank, adding 3.2 percent

Mainland China shares, meanwhile, recovered early losses to edge higher in spite of new government figures showing the country's economic growth eased to 9 percent in the third quarter of this year — its slowest in more than five years.

The reading, while still robust, fed into anxiety that deteriorating financial and economic conditions around the world were damaging Asian growth.

Investors, though, were relieved by lower third-quarter inflation data and pledges of fresh government intervention to support the economy. Shanghai's key index, down more 0.7 percent in the morning, ended 2.25 percent higher at 1,974.01.

In Tokyo, shares moved higher amid hopes for better-than-expected corporate earnings. Panasonic Corp. jumped 8.87 percent after the Nikkei business daily reported over the weekend that, helped by strong TV sales, the electronics giant would beat its interim operating profit forecast by more than 20 billion yen ($197.3 million).

The dollar was little changed at 101.76 yen, while the euro was steady at $1.3418.