The Paris CAC 40 edged up 0.05 percent to 4,017.58 and Frankfurt's DAX 30 lost 0.46 percent to 5,962.01 points nearing the half-way mark. The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of top eurozone shares was flat at 2,989.96 points.
Analysts said European investors were closely tracking events across the Atlantic. "Investors continued to buy into equities on Friday after Intel announced consensus beating numbers," said City Index market strategist Joshua Raymond.
"However, much or the news had been somewhat priced in after yesterday's gains and investors have quickly refocused their attention towards (banking giant) J. P Morgan's results."
Intel posted a sharply higher net profit on Thursday as a surge in personal computer sales boosted the fourth-quarter earnings of the world's biggest computer chipmaker.
The Santa Clara, California-based technology bellwether said net profit soared nearly nine-fold - by 875 percent - to 2.3 billion dollars in the three months, which ended on December 26.
Fourth-quarter revenue rose by 28 percent to 10.6 billion dollars, better than the 10.2 billion dollars expected by Wall Street analysts. Intel reported its earnings after the closing bell on Wall Street, which on Thursday looked past disappointing data on US retail sales to close with modest gains.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.28 percent to end at 10,710.55 points, reversing a weak opening and hitting its best close since October 1, 2008. Japanese share prices closed up 0.68 percent on Friday, at a 15-month high, tracking gains on Wall Street following positive US corporate earnings news.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange's benchmark Nikkei-225 index finished at 10,982.10 points, posting the best finish since early October 2008. Technology stocks were in demand after US bellwether Intel posted its profit surge.
"The Nikkei has risen at a good pace so far (in 2010), so this may be a time to take profits," Shinichiro Matsushita, market analyst at Daiwa Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires.