German DAX: up 0.8% French CAC: up 1.06% Italian FTSE MIB: up 0.7% Spanish IBEX: up 1% Yellen testifies before the committee at 10am local time, or 3pm GMT.
FTSE 100: up 10 points at 5748, +0.18% German DAX: up 49 points at 7172, +0.69% French CAC: up 22 points at 3462, + 0.6% Spanish IBEX: up 14 points at 7778, + 0.2% Italian FTSE MIB: down 38 points at 15269, - 0.25% Chris Beauchamp, market analyst at IG, explained that hope overcame fear in the City today.
UK FTSE 100: up 0.8%, or 48 points, at 6487 France CAC: up 1.3% Germany DAX: up 0.8% 2.30pm GMT OBR lashes out at Cameron speech Back to the UK, where the Office for Budget Responsibility has slammed the prime minster's key speech on the economy, in which he quoted the... OBR.
Here's the latest prices in Europe: FTSE 100: up 60 points at 6568, + 1% German DAX: up 67 points at 8791, +0.77% French CAC: up 26 points at4249, +0.6% Italian FTSE MIB: flat Spanish IBEX: up 46 points at 9743, + 0.5% A US debt ceiling deal will, as the cliche has it, kick the can down the road.
Boost to 2014 GDP of about 0.3% December 11, 2013 FTSE 100: up 25 points at 6551, +0.4% German DAX: up 29 points at 9143, +0.3% French CAC: up 33 points at 4124, + 0.8% 12.16pm GMT The boss of Tesco Bank also agrees that whopping bonuses for bank sales staff are counter-productive.
FTSE 100: up 12 points at 6569, +0.2% German DAX: up 27 points at 8663, +0.3% French CAC: up 18 points at 4190, +0.4% Spanish IBEX: up 13 points at 9122, +0.14% Italian FTSE MIB: up 48 points at 17962, +0.25% Alastair McCaig (@AMcCaig_IG) Half an hour into the day and the FTSE is +16 points, these are the movers.
UK FTSE 100: down 0.34% France CAC 40: up 0.13% Germany DAX: up 0.91% Spain IBEX: up 1% Italy FTSE MIB: up 0.94% 2.36pm GMT Draghi finishes by batting away yet another question about Ireland.
But to put that in context, though the FTSE100 share index was up 2.3 per cent on Friday, the German DAX and French CAC were up slightly more.
France's CAC closed up 6.0%, while the FTSE 100 ended the day up 4.8%.
Germany's Dax added 1.56% to 10,646 after falling as low as 10,174 while France's Cac closed up 1.49%.
Elsewhere, equities markets in Europe saw a mixed performance, with France's Cac 40 up and German's Dax down.
