European stock markets closed broadly higher Friday after mixed US employment figures that analysts said pointed to modest economic growth ahead.
But data left Wall Street investors unsettled, driving down US stocks after a sluggish trading day in Asia, where markets had mixed fortunes on what investors saw as uncertainties hanging over US prospects.
In London the FTSE 100 index gained 0.67 percent to finish at 4838.09 points while in Paris the CAC 40 rose 0.25 percent to 3348.37. The Frankfurt the DAX fell 0.40 percent to end the week at 5834.15 points.
Elsewhere Madrid added 0.79 percent, Amsterdam 0.11 percent and Milan 0.69 percent.
On Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.95 percent at mid-day at 9640.39 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq had shed 0.79 percent to reach 2084.86.
The US unemployment rate fell to 9.5 percent of the workforce in June as more than half a million discouraged Americans quit the job hunt, adding to pessimism in some quarters about the health of the economic recovery.
The unemployment rate fell from 9.7 percent to its lowest level in a year, while the number of jobs actually shrank for the first time since December, the Labour Department said.
Some 125 000 posts were lost last month, adding to worries that the economic path ahead will be bumpy.
But the falling unemployment rate offered a little succor to President Barack Obama, who is running out of time to put the economy back on track before congressional elections in November.
"Make no mistake, we are headed in the right direction but... we are not headed there fast enough for a lot of Americans. We are not headed there fast enough for me either," Obama said.
Most analysts had expected the ranks of jobless Americans to swell beyond 15 million in June, pushing the unemployment rate up to 9.8 percent.
In the end the number of unemployed fell to 14.6 million in June as 652,000 Americans left the job market and more than 20,000 took up temporary posts.
"The unemployment rate dropped because the labor force shrank even more rapidly as discouraged workers stopped looking for work," said analysts at Societe Generale.
Added Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors: "This was not the type of report that would bring smiles to investors' faces or convince anyone at the Fed that the recovery has shifted into a higher gear."
But he added that the report "does not argue a double-dip (a new slide into recession) in the making."
"The labor market is recovering at a sluggish pace ... And that points to modest growth ahead."
Analysts in Paris said European sentiment was also affected by news that US industrial orders had declined in May, which prevented markets from rebounding significantly after a week of turbulence.
Pharmaceutical group Sanofi-Aventis fell 2.42 percent Friday on rumours that it was contemplating a 20-billion-dollar acquisition in the United States.
Banks in Paris were by contrast well supported, with BNP Paribas adding 1.64 percent and Societe Generale 0.12 percent.
Banks were firmer as well in London, where Barclay's jumped 4.54 percent and LBG 4.77 percent.
