Offshore rallies to give shares a boost of confidence

US stocks climbed on Friday, buoyed by Google's gangbuster earnings, rising US retail sales and hopes that European governments are moving to resolve the debt crisis.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 167.11 points, or 1.46 per cent, to 11,645.24 in closing trade.

The S&P 500 index advanced 20.91 points, or 1.74 per cent, to 1224.57 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 47.61 points, or 1.82 per cent, to 2667.85.

The ASX 24, the December share price index futures contract, was 46 points higher on Sunday.

The AMP Capital Investors chief economist, Shane Oliver, expects the market to open 1.1 per cent higher this morning.

"I think we'll see the market more than recover the losses we saw on Friday," Dr Oliver said. "It should be a reasonably good start to the week, with a bit more confidence around that the global economy is not going to plunge into a recession and that we won't have a global financial crisis-style meltdown."'

Dr Oliver said concerns about the European crisis and a US recession had eased.

"Volatility will remain reasonably high but I think we've seen the worst of it and the market will be hoping for some sort of reasonable plan from the Europeans."

As well, Chinese gross domestic product figures for last month will be released tomorrow. The figures are expected to show a slight slowing in economic growth.

The minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia's October 4 board meeting also will be released tomorrow. Market watchers will be looking for further indications of the central bank's recent easing bias.

On Wednesday, the RBA's assistant governor, Guy Debelle, will address the 24th Annual Finance and Treasury Association Congress and the Westpac-Melbourne Institute leading indexes of economic activity for October will be released.