In Trump's latest salvo, he said late on Thursday that he had instructed U.S. trade officials to consider $100 billion in additional tariffs on China
Most European stock indices opened slightly higher, with the benchmark up 0.4% and the export-sensitive German DAX up 0.5%
Facebook Inc shed nearly 7 per cent after reports that a political consultancy that worked on US President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign gained inappropriate access to data on 50 million of the social
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 ended down just 0.05 per cent at 2,726.8 after an initial loss of almost one per cent
The rebound came after a two-week rout that wiped off over $6 trillion in global stock market value at one point, triggered by worries of a rise in US inflation
The caution was sparked by an overnight Wall Street wobble involving a rotation from tech to financials
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan had earlier fallen 0.6%
MSCI's all-country equity index is clocking year-to-date gains of almost 19%
MSCI's world equity index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, rose 0.2% to its highest ever level
The pound hovered at a two-month high against the euro
The market's backstop safety asset, gold, edged up to its latest two-month high of $1,288 an ounce
European stocks gained 0.2% after a sharp fall in euro zone inflation
After Fed rate hike, investors were keen on a meeting of global finance chiefs in Germany
US stock futures dipped 0.4 per cent, a fairly large move for Asian trade
Friday's nonfarm payrolls report is expected to show employers added 175,000 jobs last month
MSCI's 46-country All World index was within touching distance of its lifetime high as European stocks rose 0.5%
MSCI's world index was up 0.53%, helped by signs of a revival of economic activity around the world
The benchmark Sensex rose 265 points or 0.9 per cent at 28,773, while the Nifty climbed 90 points or one per cent to close at 8,867
Europe's main stock markets in London, Frankfurt and Paris dipped in and out of positive territory
North Korea's nuclear test set off a blast that was more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima