European markets were mixed but generally higher on Friday, with London shares firmer as strong gains by Rolls-Royce helped offset fears of rising interest rates in the US, dealers said.
London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares gained 0.21 percent to 5,759.3 points, while in Paris the CAC 40 firmed 0.20 percent to 4,937.56 and Frankfurt's DAX 30 added 0.13 percent to 5,657.12 points. The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares was stable at 3,678.48 points.
As European markets closed, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off by 0.33 percent at 10.816.52 and the tech-heavy NASDAQ composite had fallen by 0.68 percent to 2,266.07 points.
US investors reacted to a mixed but generally positive jobs report that suggested the US Federal Reserve would likely raise interest rates again.
European investor sentiment was lifted on Friday by energy news, with New York crude futures rising above US$65 per barrel.
High oil prices generally boost the price of shares in energy companies, which often has the effect of lifting stock market indices.
In Paris, Veolia rose 0.66 percent to 42.50 euros after a positive full-year sales report from the French utility services group.
Oil major Total saw its shares gain 0.59 percent to 223 euros.
The share price of Arcelor, meanwhile, jumped 4.06 percent to 30.53 euros after chief executive Guy Dolle said the company might ally with a smaller partner to fend off Mittal Steel's hostile bid.
In an interview published in French daily Les Echos, Dolle was reported as saying that an industrial alliance with a smaller steel company had possibilities.
In London, shares in the engineering group Rolls-Royce benefited from positive sector sentiment, leaping 3.43 percent to £4.4475.
Kingfisher saw its shares plunge 3.97 percent to £2.30 however, after broker Credit Suisse downgraded its earnings forecasts for the biggest home-improvement retailer in Europe.
Shares in energy group Centrica ran into profit-taking after rocketing the day before by as much as 25 percent on reported interest from state-owned Russian gas giant Gazprom.
Centrica shares lost 2.25 percent to £2.9325 after the British government warned in a statement that a Gazprom takeover bid would face regulatory scrutiny.
Meanwhile, British Airways plunged 2.55 percent to £3.1575, despite posting an 8.6 percent increase in third-quarter pre-tax profits to £164 million (US$291.2 million).
In Frankfurt, however, shares in German rival Lufthansa shot up by 1.91 percent to 13.36 euros.
In Amsterdam, the AEX index gained 0.19 percent to 451.27 points, the Swiss SMI added 0.70 percent to 7.840.79, in Milan the SP/MIB slipped 0.18 percent to 36,408, in Madrid the IBEX-35 rose 0.36 percent to 11,175.8 and in Brussels the BEL-20 closed essentially unchanged at 3,766.43.
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