European stocks fall
London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares slipped 0.20 percent to 6,621.05 points.
LONDON (AFP) - European shares fell on Friday when investors were spooked by disappointing results from US Internet titans Google and Microsoft, dealers said.
In early afternoon trade, London s FTSE 100 index of leading shares slipped 0.20 percent to 6,621.05 points, Frankfurt s DAX 30 lost 0.13 percent to 8,325.67 points and in Paris the CAC 40 decreased 0.31 percent to 3,915.68.
"An altogether more repressed sentiment prevails today, as disappointing earnings from the global technology sector threaten to take the wind out of the stock market sails," said market strategist Brenda Kelly at trading firm IG.
Investors also balanced an outlook hike for the US economy and more record peaks on Wall Street, against news that Detroit has became the biggest city in US history to file for bankruptcy protection after decades of decline and mismanagement.
"The outlook hike for the US from Moody s credit rating agency, and new highs in the Dow Jones Industrial Index coinciding with the declared bankruptcy of the City of Detroit, serve to remind us of the fragility of the American recovery," noted Kelly. After the US close, Internet search giant Google revealed that its second-quarter profit rose 16 percent to $3.23 billion from a year ago, but its results fell far short of market expectations.
The results were released at the same time fellow tech giant Microsoft also released results shy of expectations, sending its shares tumbling.
Microsoft took a charge of $900 million for "inventory adjustments" of its entry-level tablet computer Surface, which has failed to gain traction in the market.
"The technology sector appears to be suffering from a mix of problems such as faltering demand ... and a shift away from PC to mobile/tablet," said ETX Capital analyst Ishaq Siddiqi.
"Indeed, Google and Microsoft missed expectations due to those issues and have now joined Intel, SAP, Yahoo and Oracle in the list of ugly tech earnings."
In Paris, shares in diversified media group Vivendi gained 1.94 percent to 15.51 euros after a press report that it had rejected an offer of $8.5 billion (6.5 billion euros) for its subsidiary Universal Music.
Shares in drinks firm Remy Cointreau fell by 3.97 percent to 78.82 euros on a note of caution by JPMorgan Cazenove in the light of the firm s sales figures on Thursday which showed a weakening of cognac sales in China.
Asian shares mostly fell on Friday, with profit-takers moving in at the end of a positive week, while dealers in Japan keep an eye on weekend parliamentary elections. The losses came despite another record-breaking close for the Dow and S&P 500 on Wall Street.
On Wall Street, the Dow rose 0.50 percent and the S&P 500 ended 0.50 percent higher.
New York stocks were also supported by this week s assurances from Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke that the bank s $85 billion-a-month bond-buying scheme would be kept in place as long as the economy needed it.
In foreign exchange market activity on Friday, the European single currency eased to $1.3102 from $1.3108 late in New York on Thursday.
The dollar slipped to 100.38 yen compared to 100.47, while sterling rose to $1.5250 from $1.5220.
On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold slid to $1,286.51 an ounce from $1,283.25 on Thursday.
On Friday, analysts will also keep one eye on the G20 group of emerging and advanced nations, who are meeting in Moscow and will discuss a crackdown on tax avoidance.
