US stocks have followed European equity markets higher following a surprisingly strong report on German economic growth.

Five minutes into trade on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 17,982.20, up 9.82 points (0.05 per cent).

The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.86 (0.04 per cent) at 2,089.34, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 13.28 (0.31 per cent) to 4,871.63.

In the period from October to December, gross domestic product in Europe’s biggest economy expanded by 0.7 per cent quarter-over-quarter, bringing full-year growth to 1.6 per cent, the German federal statistics office said.

The strong data helped push the German DAX index above 11,000 for the first time and lifted other European indices.

Economic activity in the eurozone as a whole rose 0.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, the official Eurostat agency said.