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World shares headed for a second week of gains and the euro its best week since early February on Friday as growing evidence of a U.S. recovery bolstered investor appetite for riskier assets.
Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index, which is on course for its fourth weekly rise, was mostly steady in early trading hovering near a 4-1/2 year peak. London's FTSE 100, Paris's CAC-40 and Frankfurt's DAX were flat to down 0.2 percent.
Data on U.S. jobs, retail sales and inflation this week has convinced many investors that the recovery in the world's largest economy is gaining momentum, despite tax rises and government spending cuts.
The lack of price pressures has eased concerns that the Federal Reserve may need to consider an early exit from its aggressive quantitative easing (QE) policy that has helped support asset prices around the world.
"I think (the Fed) will continue easing at $85 billion a month, so you have good economic data and still ongoing QE," said Thomas Costerg, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank.
The U.S. will release more numbers on its economic performance later in the day covering consumer sentiment, manufacturing output and inflation.
The dollar, which has been gaining on the good economic news, took a break from its recent sprint on Friday as sterling strengthened and the yen gained.
Against a basket of major currencies the greenback eased about 0.25 percent but stayed close to a seven-month high touched on Thursday.
The yen's gains followed approval by the Japanese parliament of Haruhiko Kuroda as the next governor of the Bank of Japan. Markets expect the BOJ under Kuroda to take more aggressive easing measures, maybe as soon as its next policy meeting on April 3-4.
Kuroda's appointment also sent Japan's Nikkei stock average up 1.3 percent to a new 4-1/2-year peak. The MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan also rose 0.4 percent.
Meanwhile the British pound gained against the dollar after the outgoing Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said the bank was not seeking a further depreciation in sterling and that the currency was now properly valued.
The pound traded at around $1.5133, well clear of a 33-month trough of $1.4832 set earlier in the week.
Commodity markets were also drawing strength form the better U.S. economic outlook with U.S. crude oil up 0.1 percent to $93.15 a barrel while Brent rose 0.3 percent to $109.25.
London copper gained 0.2 percent to $7,818 a tonne and was set to close higher for a second straight week after the latest sign of a recovery in the global economy, although muted buying from top consumer China curbed upside momentum.
(Reporting by Richard Hubbard; Editing by Peter Graff)
