LONDON — World stock markets recovered early losses today after Lowe's, the second biggest U.S. home improvement chain, said first-quarter profit fell less than feared.

The report boosted hopes among investors that the worst of the U.S. recession is over and offset weak earnings news out of Asia, which had weighed on markets early in the day. Standing out today was India's stock market, which vaulted more than 17 percent higher on the results of elections over the weekend.

In afternoon European trading, Germany's DAX was up 1.1 percent at 4,789.35 and Britain's FTSE 100 was 1.2 percent higher at 4,400.69. France's CAC 40 rose 0.7 percent to 3,191.14. All of them had dropped as much as 1 percent after the open.

U.S. futures pointed to gains on Wall Street. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 38, or 0.5 percent, to 8,305. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 5.50, or 0.6 percent, to 888.50. On Friday, the two indexes had fallen 0.8 percent and 1.1 percent.

News that net profit at Lowe's fell to 32 cents per share in the quarter ended May 1, topping analysts' forecast of 25 cents a share, helped sentiment after two of Japan's leading companies — Panasonic and Mizuho Financial — reported colossal losses for the last fiscal year.