European shares fell on Friday as uncertainty across major economies added to headwinds for investors even as the rate easing cycle gets under way, while a global outage hit services from airlines, banks and financial services.

It has been a turbulent week in markets, with a tech sell-off sparked by deepening Sino-U.S. trade tensions, uncertainty over U.S. President Joe Biden's fate in the presidential race, disappointing Chinese economic data and a lacklustre third plenum outcome casting a shadow over the global mood.

In the foreign exchange market, Tokyo's recent bouts of intervention also kept traders on edge.
"We could just be getting a taste of things to come. And that is more turbulence," said Matt Simpson, senior market analyst at City Index.

On Friday, major U.S. airlines ground flights citing communications issues, while other carriers, banks and media companies around the world reported system outages were disrupting their operations.

LSEG Group's Workspace news and data platform suffered an outage that affected user access worldwide, causing disruption across financial markets.

European stocks (.STOXX), fell 0.6%, while London stocks (.FTSE), fell 0.7% in early trading.

In Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS), slid 1.6% and was headed for its worst week in three months with a nearly 3% loss.


S&P 500 futures tacked on 0.16%, while Nasdaq futures gained 0.3%.

Technology stocks continued to struggle in Asia, with South Korea's tech-heavy KOSPI index (.KS11), and Taiwan stocks (.TWII),  falling 1% and 2%, respectively.

In China, investors were left disappointed over the lack of details provided on the implementation steps for achieving economic policy goals at the conclusion of its closely watched plenum on Thursday.

[Reuters]