LONDON: Key European stock markets were mostly stronger on Friday, while Wall Street struggled in morning trading after US chemical giant DuPont issued a profit warning.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 index ended the week with a slight daily gain of 0.34 percent to 6,757.77 points.
Frankfurt's DAX 30 added 0.10 percent to 9,815.17 points while the CAC 40 in Paris was essentially flat at 4,436.98 points.
In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had dipped 0.10 percent to 16,830.01 points around midday.
The broad-based S&P 500 was off by just 0.09 percent to 1,955.39, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index had inched 0.04 percent higher to 4,380.93.
The euro gained to $1.3631 from $1.3609 late on Thursday in New York. Back in London, shares in TUI Travel jumped by 3.46 percent to 403.50 pence on news that it had agreed to merge with German parent group TUI to form the world's leading tourism group.
While European markets were in positive territory for the most part, investor sentiment in New York was hit by a profit warning from Dow heavyweight DuPont. The chemical group cited disappointing corn seed sales and seed inventory write downs.
During the week, European stock markets had "performed poorly, weighed down by concerns about the wider economy, as well as geopolitical tensions", noted Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at trading group CMC Markets UK.
The French economy stagnated in the first quarter and investment continued to decline though consumer purchasing power bumped higher, the state statistics agency said on Friday.
Confirming an earlier estimate, INSEE said the French economy saw zero growth in the first quarter, with paltry 0.7 percent growth expected for the whole of 2014.
Across the Channel, Britain's economy grew by 0.8 percent in the first quarter of 2014 compared with output in the final three months of last year, unrevised official data showed.
Gross domestic product was 3.0-percent higher in the January-March quarter compared with the first three months of 2013, revised down from the previous official estimate of 3.1 percent, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.
In foreign exchange, the British pound nudged down to $1.7013 from $1.7024 late on Thursday. The euro stood at 80.12 British pence compared with 79.94 pence the previous day.
On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold rose to $1,317.50 an ounce from $1,311.75 on Thursday.
Asian stock markets closed mostly lower on Friday following losses on Wall Street the previous day that were fuelled by anaemic US consumer spending.
Next week, investors anticipate the release of key economic data on global manufacturing activity, US jobs and Japanese business confidence.
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