European stocks finished modestly higher Thursday, with bank shares charging up as European Central Bank Mario Draghi suggested deflationary pressures have lessened, though energy shares lost ground as oil prices slid. Draghi said the ECB removed language from his previous statements that had said the bank would act, if warranted, to achieve its inflation objectives by using all the instruments available within its mandate.

U.S. stocks eked out gains Thursday on the back of a rebound in energy shares as the bull market quietly marked its unofficial eighth birthday. Thursday marks the eighth anniversary of the bull market, based on the fact that the S&P 500 notched its bear-market closing low on March 9, 2009. The benchmark index has gone on to gain 249% since that point.

Asian stocks edged up and the dollar rose to 1-1/2-month highs versus the yen on Friday, ahead of the closely-watched U.S. non-farm payrolls report due later in the day. Shares in South Korea rose 0.3 percent and the won firmed slightly after the country's Constitutional Court upheld parliament's impeachment of President Park Geun-hye over a graft scandal involving big business.