US stocks put a floor under global equities on Friday after a weak inflation reading brought investors back into the market even as tensions between the United States and North Korea continued to escalate, though that tension still drove safe-haven buying of gold and the yen.
Japanese markets were closed for a holiday, but the tense mood dragged Asian shares lower.
The Dow and S&P 500 inched higher on the day but they both posted their largest weekly percentage drops since late March.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 14.31 points, or 0.07 per cent, to end at 21,858.32, the S&P 500 gained 3.11 points, or 0.13 per cent, to 2,441.32 and the Nasdaq Composite added 39.68 points, or 0.64 per cent, to 6,256.56.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index lost 1.01 per cent and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS shed 0.26 per cent for a weekly loss of 1.6 per cent, the largest since the week to Nov. 4.
Emerging market stocks .MSCIEF lost 1.27 per cent. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS closed 1.47 per cent lower.
South Korea's Kospi fell 1.7 per cent on Friday to its lowest since May 24, but its losses for the week were a relatively modest 3.2 per cent.
The yen on Friday added to a strong weekly rally against the dollar of close to 1.5 per cent, hitting its highest versus the greenback in almost four months, at 108.73 yen.
The Korean won KRW=KFTC continued to fall versus the dollar, down 0.13 per cent to 1,143.5 on Friday for a 1.6 per cent decline on the week.
The dollar was further weighed down on Friday by the soft US inflation data.
The dollar index fell 0.32 per cent, with the euro EUR= up 0.42 per cent to $1.1819.
Sterling GBP= was last trading at $1.3007, up 0.25 per cent on the day.
The Japanese yen last strengthened 0.03 per cent versus the greenback at 109.22 per dollar JPY=.
US crude CLcv1 rose 0.41 per cent to $48.79 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $52.01, up 0.21 per cent, according to Reuters.
