Spanish stocks bounced higher on Wednesday, as worries over the standoff between Catalonia and Madrid subsided, after Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont suspended independence plans. What stocks are doing: The IBEX 35 index IBEX, +1.34% rallied 1.3% to end at 10,278.40, its highest close since Sep. 29, according to FactSet. The Madrid benchmark was rebounding from a 0.9% loss on Tuesday, when concerns over an escalation in Spain's political crisis blunted the appetite for investing.

Equity markets in Asia extended their gains on Thursday, taking cues from fresh overnight records set by key U.S. indexes as the earnings season kicks off. Strong earnings growth has supported major stock indexes this year, and some analysts said they expect third-quarter results to continue to outperform expectations. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve signaled its confidence that the U.S. economy was strong enough to support further rate increases.

All three main U.S. stock benchmarks closed at records on Wednesday after minutes from the Federal Reserve's September meeting suggested caution among policy makers on the next interest rate hike which the market had widely expected in December.