European stocks leapt to their strongest levels in more than a year Thursday, buoyed by a rally in mining shares, and after Dutch voters rebuffed Geert Wilders's far-right party in a general election.
U.S. stocks retreated Thursday to close lower, giving back some of the previous day's Federal Reserve-inspired gains as a fall for health-care and utilities stocks pushed the market into negative territory.
Investors in Asia turned cautious Friday ahead of a meeting of finance chiefs from the Group of 20 industrialized and emerging economies, where U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is widely expected to pressure countries to boost the value of their currencies.