Early strength in the US dollar, which put downward pressure on commodity prices, eroded after comments from European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet supported the euro.

The sell-off in US Treasury debt caps off a week of relatively aggressive selling that has the benchmark 10-year note's yield on track for its biggest rise in this year.

"Yields are going to remain biased higher, but not in a straight line," said Kim Rupert, managing director of global fixed-income analysis at Action Economics in San Francisco.

Rupert also cited the rising US deficit and inflation fears as well as a more robust outlook for economic growth as the reasons for the Treasury bond market's losses.

The benchmark US 10-year Treasury note fell 21/32 of a point in price, driving the yield up to 3.288 percent.

Equity markets made gains globally but their upward move was mild. Contributing to the muted performance was a stronger greenback squeezing the operating margins for US exporters, feeding into the recent inverse correlation between the currency and US stocks.

In addition, China's central bank raised lenders' required reserves by 50 basis points, but left interest rates on hold. While this eased concerns that aggressive policy tightening could slow China's growth down too much, it did keep investors in check.

European shares edged up to a fresh 26-month closing high.

"People are keeping an eye on economic numbers, but until they all start moving in the same direction across the board, traders are still going to be a bit jittery," said Manoj Ladwa, senior trader at ETX Capital.

The MSCI All-Country World stock index gained just 0.24 percent.

Peripheral European sovereign credit deteriorated on Friday as prices wax and wane while uncertainty remains over whether policymakers can put to rest the concerns the debt crisis is under control.

The euro fell 0.10 percent to $1.3229. The US Dollar Index, which measures the dollar against a basket of major trading partner currencies, gave up early gains to trade flat, up just 0.01 percent at 80.079. Against the yen, the greenback was up 0.29 percent at 83.92 yen.

Commodities priced in US dollars weakened on the currency's gains. Spot gold prices fell $4.89 to $1,382.50 an ounce, while US crude oil futures lost 86 cents, or 0.97 percent, to $87.51 a barrel.

In midday trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 18.73 points, or 0.16 percent, to 11,388.79. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 4.79 points, or 0.39 percent, to 1,237.79. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 13.97 points, or 0.53 percent, to 2,630.64.

Shares of Netflix Inc. jumped after Standard & Poor's said the movie rental company, along with F5 Networks Inc and Newfield Exploration Co., will replace Office Depot Inc, New York Times Co. and Eastman Kodak Co. in the S&P 500. Netflix was up 1.4 percent at $193.73.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares rose 0.16 percent to 1,125.59, its best close since September 2008, led by automakers and the US consumer data.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock index fell 0.7 percent to close on Friday at 10,211.95 due to profit-taking. But the Nikkei was up 0.3 percent for the week.

In the credit markets, the premium that investors demand to hold peripheral government bonds rather than benchmark German debt rose on Friday with investors keeping to the sidelines as the European Central Bank's bond buying slowed down to a trickle.

The difference between Portuguese and German 10-year yields widened 18 basis points on the day to 346 basis points with traders pointing to little buying interest from the ECB.

The equivalent yield spread for Irish debt widened to 540 basis points, out 9 basis points on the day.