Spanish stocks finished off session highs Thursday after the leader of the Catalan region failed to call anticipated snap elections. Catalan President Carles Puigdemont said he wouldn't call early elections because there was no guarantee the central government in Madrid would halt its move toward stripping Catalonia of autonomous rule, local reports said.

U.S. stocks ended mostly higher on Thursday as a fusillade of better-than-expected corporate results helped to reinvigorate Wall Street buying appetite a day after the S&P 500 and the Dow posted their biggest drops in more than seven weeks.

Asia-Pacific equities rose broadly on Friday, buoyed by strength in U.S. corporate earnings and the prospect of continuing stimulus in Europe. Ahead of the start of Asian trading, three of the world's biggest companies - Google parent Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. - reported booming quarterly growth, sending shares of the three tech giants surging in after-hours trade.