Global Stocks

European stocks ended a choppy session in the red on Friday after weaker-than-expected U.S. retail sales cast doubt on the health of the world's largest economy.

The Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP, -0.16% dropped 0.2% to close at 346.09, partly erasing a 0.8% gain from Thursday, which was fueled by higher oil prices. For the week, it ended 1.4% higher.

U.S. stocks ended mostly lower Friday, but still eked out small weekly gains, as weakness in shares of mining and chemical companies, along with a rise in active oil rigs, blunted an advance in the energy sector and rising oil prices. Still the Nasdaq closed at an all-time high, one session after all three benchmarks posted record closes on the same day for the first time since 1999. The S&P 500 index SPX, -0.08% ended down 1.8 points, or 0.1%, at 2,183.99, weighed by sharp declines in Alcoa Inc. AA, -2.40% and Nucor Corp. NUE, -3.17% and Dow Chemical Co. DOW, -2.44% followed by a 0.4% loss in the telecom sector. Three of the index's 10 sectors ended in positive territory, with energy leading the gains, up 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.20% lost 37.53 points, or 0.2%, to 18,575.9, pulled down by a 1.9% drop in DuPont DD, -1.93% and a 0.9% drop in IBM Corp. IBM, -0.97% but buoyed by a 1.3% gain in Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM, +1.30% Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.09% ended up 4.5 points, or 0.1%, at 5,232.89, an all-time closing high.

Asian shares inched back from one-year peaks on Monday as a rally in Chinese stocks helped offset news of Japan's economic growth slowing to a halt last quarter.

China's blue-chip CSI300 Index .CSI300 rose 1.3 percent to a seven-month high and Shanghai .SSEC added 0.9 percent amid talk more stimulus would be forthcoming from Beijing.

Aug 15 Japan's Nikkei share index slipped on Monday as the yen stayed strong and data showed economic growth stalled in the second quarter, souring investor sentiment.

The Nikkei dropped 0.2 percent to 16,884.76 points by midmorning, after rising 4.1 percent last week.

Japan's economy expanded by a scant 0.2 percent on an annualised basis in the April-June quarter, less than a median market forecast for a 0.7 percent increase and a marked slowdown from a revised 2.0 percent increase in January-March, Cabinet Office data showed.