Global stocks erase year's gain
US stocks fell on Friday after a sloppy debut by Facebook Inc spoiled hopes that a spectacular open for the most-anticipated stock sale in years would brighten the mood in what has been a gloomy month for equity markets.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 73.11 points, or 0.59 percent, to 12,369.38. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 9.64 points, or 0.74 percent, to 1,295.22. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 34.90 points, or 1.24 percent, to 2,778.79.
European stocks sank, with a key index losing 5.1 percent on the week and hitting its lowest level in five months, hurt by mounting fears about the ability of Spain and Greece to deal with their debts and fix their troubled banking sectors.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares closed 1.1 percent lower at 970.24 points, dropping 5.1 percent on the week, its worst weekly performance since last September.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei average shed 3 percent to log a seventh straight week of losses, its longest such run since the third quarter of 2001, as investors sold stocks and other risky assets on concerns over slowing global growth and a deepening euro zone crisis.
The Nikkei fell 265.28 points to 8,611.31, taking its decline to 16 percent since hitting a one-year high on March 27. Should the benchmark extend losses next week, to around 8,200, it would technically enter a bear market.
The broader Topix fell 2.9 percent to 725.54, taking the index to negative territory this year after rallying 17 percent in January-March to log its best first-quarter performance in 24 years.
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