Europe, Asia Markets Down Before Key Oil Producers’ Meeting

Global stock markets cooled down on the last trading day of the week as the U.S. dollar consolidated its weekly gains while investors awaited a meeting of top oil producers about a potential production freeze, to be held in Doha, Qatar, on Sunday.

European markets started lower with shares in Germany off the most. The DAX was down 0.62 percent, while France's CAC 40 was off 0.55 percent and London's FTSE 100 was lower by 0.40 percent. The pan-European Stoxx 600 was down 0.39 percent.

In Asia, all major bourses were down, with shares in Japan losing the most. The Nikkei 225 closed down 0.37 percent while China's Shanghai Composite was off 0.14 percent. China’s Nasdaq-style ChiNext index was down 0.63 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index closed down by 0.10 percent Friday.

India’s S&P BSE Sensex was closed for the day while Australia’s ASX index bucked the regional trend to close up 0.70 percent.

In the U.S., stock futures on the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were down 0.22 percent while stock futures on the Dow Jones index were down 0.16 percent.

Currencies of nations dependent on exports to China gained Friday after the world’s second-largest economy grew at 6.7 percent in the first quarter year-on-year, bolstering the view its slowdown may be bottoming out. The Australian dollar rose 0.3 percent and the New Zealand dollar rose 0.9 percent.