Wall Street mixed, as European equities end higher

The S&P 500 broke a four-day string of gains, ending slightly lower on Friday as an unexpected drop in the US unemployment rate was overshadowed by concerns about the coming earnings season, which begins with Alcoa next week.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 34.79 points, or 0.26 percent, to 13,610.15 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dipped just 0.47 of a point, or 0.03 percent, to 1,460.93. The Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 13.27 points, or 0.42 percent, to end at 3,136.19.

European equities powered higher, propelled by a strong US jobs report which reassured investors about the health of the global economy and opened the door for a further short-term rise in miners and industrials.

The US unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped to its lowest in nearly four years in September, welcome news for European corporates increasingly looking abroad for profits as their own region faces recession.

That helped the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 finish 1 percent higher at 1,111.65 points, while the EuroSTOXX 50 index of euro zone blue chips gained 1.8 percent to 2,531.21 points.

Japan's Nikkei average hit a one-week high today, lifted by gains in some battered cyclical stocks, but Nikon Corp tumbled on reports of poor earnings and carmakers were sold off on concern about plummeting sales in China.

The Nikkei edged up 0.4 percent to 8,863.30, its highest level since last Friday, as investors scooped up riskier assets such as miners and shippers after both sectors were hurt by concerns about the global slowdown. The mining subindex moved up 1.5 percent while shippers advanced 2.1 percent.

The benchmark Nikkei is up 4.8 percent so far this year, trailing a 16.2 percent rise in the S&P 500 and an 11 percent gain in the pan-European STOXX Europe 600 index.