After jumping above the 16,000 point mark and good guidance from Wall Street, the Dax is just 80 points short of a new record high. Above all, progress in the US debt dispute is driving the stock markets.
The Dow Jones closed 0.3 percent higher at 33,535 points on Thursday. The technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 advanced 1.8 percent to 12,834 points. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.9 percent to 4198 points.