European and Asian stocks rallied, taking heart from a concerted effort by five central banks to provide dollar loans to euro zone banks.
Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.9 per cent, France's CAC 40 gained 0.6 per cent and Germany's DAX surged 1.8 per cent. Japan's Nikkei leapt 2.3 per cent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.4 per cent.
But investors in the U.S. appeared less certain about taking on risk. Dow futures were down 23 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 11,352 and S&P futures edged 3.3 points, or 0.3 per cent, lower to 1,200.90 about two and a half hours before the stock market opened.
Traders are now watching a meeting later on Friday between U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and European finance ministers. They will discuss the possibility of leveraging the euro zone's bailout fund to resolve the debt crisis and stave off a Greek default.
Also on the radar is the University of Michigan's preliminary September consumer sentiment index. Economists expect a reading of 56.5, compared with 55.7 in the final August report.
Quadruple witching - when contracts for stock index futures, stock index options, stock options and single stock futures all expire – could add volatility to trading.
In the tech sector, shares of Research In Motion Ltd. are likely to take a beating. They plunged 21 per cent in trading in Frankfurt and 19 per cent in premarket trading on the Nasdaq. The company reported a sharp drop in earnings on lacklustre sales of its smartphones and tablets. You can read more about it here:
Gold rose $8.90 to $1,790.30 (U.S.) an ounce.
Oil hovered around $89.30 a barrel.
The Canadian dollar rose to $1.0169 (U.S.).
Sonali Verma