The German market fell on Friday, after the Chinese economy expanded at the weakest pace in nearly three years in the first quarter, fuelling concerns of a hard-landing. Technology stocks came under pressure after India's Infosys Technologies warned of a challenging year ahead.
China's gross domestic product expanded 8.1 percent year-on-year in the first three months of 2012, slower than the fourth quarter's 8.9 percent increase, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday. The latest result was the weakest in 11 quarters. Economists expected a slowdown in growth to 8.4 percent.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is declining 1.14 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, is losing 0.75 percent.
The DAX index is currently losing 0.93 percent.
Commerzbank is declining 3 percent and Deutsche Bank is losing 0.8 percent.
SAP is down 1.4 percent. Infineon Technologies is losing 1.3 percent.
Daimler is losing about 2 percent. Volkswagen and BMW are moderately lower.
UBS removed Metro from Least Preferred List. The stock is down 0.9 percent.
Fraport is falling 0.2 percent after Barclays cut the stock to "Equalweight" from "Overweight."
JPMorgan reduced its rating on Stada to "Neutral" from "Overweight." The shares are falling 3.2 percent.
JPMorgan raised Carl Zeiss Meditec to "Overweight" from "Neutral." Shares are flat.
Exane BNP raised Praktiker to "Neutral" from "Underperform." The stock is up 2.7 percent.
Construction and machinery manufacturer Bauer reported a decline in profit for 2011. The stock is moderately up.
Elsewhere in Europe, the French CAC 40 is gaining 1.04 percent and the UK's FTSE 100 is falling 0.52 percent. Switzerland's SMI is losing 0.37 percent.
In economic news, Germany's EU harmonized inflation slowed in March as initially estimated, final data from the Federal Statistical Office showed.
U.K. output price inflation slowed to 3.6 percent annually in March from 4.1 percent in February, the Office for National Statistics said.
Across Asia/Pacific, markets ended mostly higher as Google's forecast-beating quarterly results and news that North Korea's rocket launch has failed outweighed concerns about China's slowing economy.
Australia's All Ordinaries gained about 1 percent, China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.35 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index climbed 1.84 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 added around 1.2 percent.
In the U.S., futures point to a lower open on Wall Street. In the previous session, the major averages closed firmly in positive territory, near their best levels of the day. The Dow jumped 1.4 percent, the Nasdaq surged 1.3 percent and the S&P 500 soared 1.4 percent.
In the commodity space, crude for May delivery is sliding $0.57 to $103.07 per barrel and June gold is falling $7.7 to $1672.9 a troy ounce.
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Market Analysis
June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.