NEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks were on the mend on Friday while the U.S. dollar rally cooled - but for how long remains unclear.

"It's a pretty bleak past couple of months, we're at or very close to bear market territory for just about every major index," Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel in Charlottesville, Virginia told Reuters news agency Friday.

"It's too early to tell whether we're approaching a bottom and at least stabilizing."

The technology sector stole the limelight Friday with the Nasdaq Composite surging 434.04 points or 3.82 percent to 11,805.00.

The Standard and Poor's 500 jumped 93.81 points or 2.39 percent to 4,023.89.

Lagging a little, the Dow Jones industrials still managed a 466.36 points or 1.47 percent gain to 12,196.66.

On foreign exchange markets the U.S. dollar edged back after its multi-month relentless rally. The euro clawed back a tiny portion of its recent losses to trade at 1.0398 around the New York close Friday.

The British pound edged up to 1.2236. The Swiss franc was little changed at 1.0028.

The Canadian dollar strengthened to 1.2922. The badly wounded Australian dollar firmed a touch to 0.6928. The New Zealand dollar edged up to 0.6268.

The Japanese yen meantime slipped to 129.35.

On overseas equity markets, the Dax in Germany surged 2.10 percent Friday. The Paris, France-based CAC 40 rebounded 2.52 percent. In London, the FTSE 100 advanced 2.55 percent.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 advanced 678.93 points or 2.64 percent to 26,427.65.

The Australian All Ordinaries rallied 141.10 points or 1.97 percent, to close Friday at 7,307.70.

South Korea's Kospi Composite surged 54.16 points or 2.12 percent to 2,604.24.

In China, the Shanghai Composite gained 29.29 points or 0.96 percent to 3,084.28.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong jumped 518.43 points or 2.68 percent to 19,898.77.

In New Zealand, the S&P/NZX 50 went against the trend, dipping 9.18 points or 0.08 percent to 11,168.18.