On Thursday European stocks climbed for a fourth day as investors continued to weigh whether Federal Reserve policy makers meeting on Friday will take action to help the economy. Asian stocks rose and U.S. futures swung between gains and losses.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced 0.9 percent. The benchmark measure has advanced 3.9 percent from the two-year low it reached on the 19th August.

Credit Agricole climbed 4.6 percent to 6.50 euros. The bank said second-quarter profit fell 11 percent to 339 million euros.

International Power, the U.K. utility controlled by GDF Suez SA, rallied 3.1 percent to 316.7 pence. JPMorgan lifted its recommendation on the shares to “overweight” from “neutral.”

Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third-largest mining company, gained 1.6 percent to 3,561 pence. BHP Billiton Ltd. the biggest, rose 1.6 percent to 1,964 pence as commodities prices climbed. Copper, lead, nickel and tin increased in London.

Apple Inc. shares declined after the resignation of Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, who transformed the company he started at age 21 from a personal-computer and also ran into the world’s largest technology company.

The shares fell as much as 6.9 percent to the equivalent of $349.91 in German trading today. They lost as much as 7 percent in extended trading in the U.S. on Wednesday after the announcement. Jobs, who will become chairman, was on medical leave since the 17th January, following a 2003 cancer diagnosis and a liver transplant in 2009. He is succeeded by Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, 50, who has been running day-to-day operations.

Japanese stocks rose, pushing up the Nikkei 225 Stock Average the most in almost two months, after better-than-estimated U.S. economic data improved the earnings outlook for exporters.