European stock markets are up, with banks posting record quarterly results.

European stock markets accelerated at the end of the session, closing in positive territory for the third consecutive day. Paris rose 0.18%, Frankfurt 0.33%, and Milan led the way with a gain of 0.65%. This was driven by banks, which, after yesterday's hiatus, are now back on the up after a string of quarterly reports with record profits—Mediobanca, Banco BPM, BPER, and Popolare di Sondrio. And while the next event on the current risky calendar will have to wait until August 21st, with the early shareholders' meeting of Mediobanca, it was BPM CEO Castagna who stirred things up by opening the door to a merger with Credit Agricole Italia.

Wall Street also remains cautious but positive, with the Dow Jones rising cautiously and the Nasdaq rising by more than half a percentage point.

Meanwhile, the euro, after last week's pause, is rallying again against the dollar: the European single currency traded today at 1.1639. The spread between Italian government bonds and German Bunds closed again at a low of 83 basis points.