U.S. and European stock markets rallied sharply Thursday on positive news about the U.S. job market.

At the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 423-points, or around four percent, while the Nasdaq composite index climbed four-point-seven percent.

Major stock markets in Europe, including in Britain, Germany and France, saw stock prices surge around three percent.

The surge in prices came after the U.S. government announced that the number of people filing for unemployment benefits fell below 400-thousand for the first time in four months last week.

On the heels of such news, global oil prices also climbed more than three percent to 85 dollars a barrel while gold prices fell around two percent.