European stocks retreat amid Greece uncertainty; Dax down 0.54%

Investing.com - European stocks were lower on Friday, as attempts to reach a new bailout deal for Greece continued, while fears over U.S. fiscal policy continued to weigh on market sentiment.

During European morning trade, the EURO STOXX 50 fell 0.29%, France’s CAC 40 dipped 0.05%, while Germany’s DAX 30 dropped 0.54%.

Worries about the handling of Greece's debt woes resurfaced after German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Thursday said next week may still be too early to make a decision on granting further aid to Athens, despite a successful vote on new austerity measures.

Meanwhile, European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi praised Greece for going ahead with austerity reforms, but he said the ECB was "by and large done" with helping finance Greece.

Investors also remained cautious amid concerns over the U.S. fiscal cliff, automatic tax hikes and spending cuts due to come into effect on January 1 unless lawmakers can reach an agreement, which could threaten U.S. and global growth.

Financial stocks were mostly lower, as shares in France's biggest lender BNP Paribas dropped 0.52%, while Germany's Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank tumbled 2.22% and 4.37%.

Peripheral lenders added to losses, with Italian banks Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo declining 1.11% and 1.48%, while Spain's Banco Santander and BBVA retreated 0.96% and 1.15%.

Elsewhere, Lafarge tumbled 1.07%, even as it reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization that rose to EUR1.07 billion from EUR1.01 billion a year earlier.

In London, commodity-heavy FTSE 100 edged down 0.15%, weighed by losses in mining and oil stocks.

Mining giant Rio Tinto saw shares ease 0.08% and rival Eurasian Natural Resources plunged 2.36%, while copper producers Xstrata and Kazakhmys fell 0.18% and 0.97% respectively.

Oil and gas major Anglo American was also on the downside, with shares plummetin 0.89%, while BP lost 0.80%.

In the financial sector, stocks were broadly lower. Shares in HSBC Holdings dropped 0.42% and Lloyds Banking retreated 0.55%, while Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland slipped 0.15% and 0.13%.

In the U.S., equity markets pointed to a higher open. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a 0.04% gain, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.14% rise, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.24% increase.

Also Friday, official data showed that industrial production in France dropped 2.7% in September, more than the expected 1% decline, after a 1.9% rise the previous month.

In Italy, industrial production tumbled 1.5% in September, compared with expectations for a 1.4% drop, after a 1.7% increase the previous month.

Later in the day, the U.S. was to produce preliminary data from the University of Michigan on consumer sentiment.