7.53am BST

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke attending yesterday's meeting of the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts July 10, 2013.

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the eurozone crisis, the global economy and the financial world.

It's going to be a lively day in the markets after Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke declared last night that the days of ultra-loose monetary policy are far from over.

Shares are rallying in Asia, and big gains are expected in Europe after a suprisingly dovish performance from Bernanke. The Fed chair implied that he and his colleagues are some way from ending the huge bond-buying programme that is pumping $85bn per month into the US economy.

The dollar tumbled after Bernanke suggested that the true rate of US joblessness was higher than shown by the official figures, and pointed out that inflation remained

As Bernanke put it:

Highly accommodative monetary policy for the foreseeable future is what's needed.

Bernanke said policy makers are "somewhat optimistic" about the US economy, but suggested that the Fed could take further action if needed:

If financial conditions were to tighten to the extent that they jeopardized the achievement of our inflation and employment objectives, then we would have to push back against that.

Bernanke's comments were surprising as two weeks ago, after the last Fed meeting, he has spoken of slowing the Fed's quantitative easing programme later this year, and ending it by the summer of 2014.

Minutes from that meeting, also released yesterday, showed that Fed officials were split over the issue, with some members wanting more reassurance that America's labour market was healing before turning down the tap of easy money.

And the prospect of yet more simulus measures has been greeted with a predictable cheer in the financial world -- the Chinese market was up 4% in late trading).And the dollar has been tumbling against other currencies (round-up to follow)

Spread betters expect European shares to rally too:

David Jones (@DavidJones_IG) Thirty minutes to go until the open and a bumper +90 point start expected for the FTSE 100, at 6595. Live price: http://t.co/l7LFqXn9ZX

But it's a less cheerful picture in the euro area today, where political instability is the theme of the day. Even in Luxembourg, where veteran prime minister Jean Claude Juncker is expected to formally resign today over a spying scandal.

I'll be tracking all the action in the markets and the euro area for the next few hours, as usual....