LONDON: European stock markets fell and the euro dropped against the dollar on Friday as traders digested record high eurozone unemployment data following weak US numbers, analysts said.
London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares shed 1.11 percent to 6,583.09 points. Frankfurt's DAX 30 index fell 0.61 percent to 8,348.84 points, while in Paris the CAC 40 dropped 1.19 percent to 3,948.59 points.
Madrid gave up 1.37 percent and Milan slumped 0.79 percent.
In foreign exchange trading, the euro slipped to $1.2965 from $1.3043 late in New York on Thursday.
The dollar gained to 100.95 yen from 100.74 yen on Thursday.
On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold inched down to $1,394.50 an ounce from $1,413.50 on Thursday.
The drop in European share prices "is in part associated with the eurozone unemployment data", said Joshua Mahony, research analyst at Alpari traders.
"On the whole this portrays a region which continues to worsen and is unlikely to improve anytime soon," he added.
The eurozone unemployment rate hit a fresh record high level of 12.2 percent in April, with 19.2 million people on the dole as recession continued to sap the economy.
The Eurostat data agency said on Friday that in the 12 months to April, a total 1.6 million people lost their jobs in the 17-nation eurozone.
Meanwhile inflation across the single currency bloc rose to 1.4 percent in May from 1.2 percent in April, the first time for months that the reading has increased, separate official data showed on Friday.
Despite the upturn, the inflation rate remained well below the European Central Bank's target of just below 2.0 percent for a fourth month running.
Month-end book-keeping
"European markets have taken a leg lower... as traders look to scale back risk heading into the month's end, with the central bank policy picture still unclear," Matt Basi, head of UK sales trading at CMC Markets, said on Friday.
US stocks were mixed in early trade Friday amid a flurry of indicators, with a slowdown in consumer spending partly offset by a surge in the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index.
In midday trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.19 percent, the broad-based S&P 500 was virtually unchanged, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite rose 0.16 percent.
Stocks remained volatile after the Commerce Department reported that consumer spending dropped by 0.2 percent last month, the first monthly fall since May 2012 and a signal that growth slowed at the beginning of the second quarter.
Offsetting that was a jump in the Chicago area to 58.7, its highest since March 2012, and the Michigan confidence barometer, which rose to a better-than-expected 83.7, the highest since July 2007.
Asian stock markets closed mixed earlier in the day, with Tokyo clawing back some ground after plunging in the previous session as tepid US data eased concerns that the Federal Reserve could begin tapering its aggressive stimulus programme.
In company news on Friday, shares in TUI Travel retreated 1.24 percent in value to 358.5 pence after Europe's biggest tour operator said it would buy 60 of Boeing's fuel-efficient 737 MAX passenger planes for a "significant discount" to the combined catalogue price of $6.09 billion (4.67 billion euros).
The British group also has the option and right to buy up to a further 90 of the planes, TUI Travel added in a statement.
In Paris the price of shares in industrial gases group Air Liquide rose by 1.41 percent to 99.35 euros on a recommendation by brokers JPMorgan Cazenove.
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