Stocks in the United States rebounded from five-year lows on Thursday, after a bounce in energy stocks.
Trading was volatile with a turnaround emerging only in the last minutes of the session.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 172.04 points, or 2.02%, to 8,691.25.
Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 11.33 points, or 1.26%, to 908.11. However, the Nasdaq Composite Index, however, was down 11.84 points, or 0.73%, at 1,603.91 - a five-year low.
Energy shares climbed on expectations that OPEC will agree to cut output at an emergency meeting on Friday.
Trading was muted on the New York Stock Exchange: about 1.69 billion shares changed hands - below last year's estimated daily average of roughly 1.90 billion.
About 3.14 billion shares were traded on the Nasdaq - above last year's daily average of 2.17 billion.
European shares end down
European stocks fell 0.5% in choppy trade on Thursday amid more falls in the banking and automobile sectors.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares ended 0.1% lower at 872.72 points.
Credit Suisse dropped nearly 4.2% after the group made a trading loss of 1.7 billion Swiss francs in the third quarter and warned the fourth quarter would be tough.
Banco Santander and UBS both fell nearly 5%.
Daimler fell 1.3% after third-quarter operating profit plunged by two-thirds.
However, oil companies gained ahead of an OPEC meeting on Friday. BP and Royal Dutch Shell both rose more than 5% and Total added 1.5%.
Swiss company ABB slumped 18.45% after reporting a lower profit than expected. Orders for the third quarter were also down.
Spanish wind turbine maker Gamesa dropped 5.8% due to a decision to temporarily halt some production.
Mining stocks were also down after copper dropped to $US3,820 per tonne, its lowest since October 2005.
Other markets
Across Europe: Germany's DAX was down 1.1% but France's CAC 40 was 0.4% higher.
In Britain, the FTSE 100 ended 46.94 points higher, or 1.2%, at 4,087.83 after a volatile session.
The index fell 5.6% over the previous two sessions and is down more than 38% for the year to date.
Earlier in Asia, the Kospi index in South Korea was down 7.4% - its lowest close since July 2005.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was down 4.7% - its lowest level since April 2005.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 was down 4.37%.
In New Zealand, the NZX 50 index fell opened at 2807 on Friday after falling 92 points the day before.
In the currency markets: at 8.20am on Friday, the New Zealand dollar was trading at US58.35 cents, 88.61 Australian cents, 36.18 pence, 56.21 yen and 0.4540 euro. The Trade Weighted Index was at 58.87.
