Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, showed its fightback plan following a shock profit warning was starting to make a difference as it stemmed sales falls, but its performance was outshone by rival J Sainsbury.
Stocks are falling mid-morning Friday, the last trading day of the third quarter. But the major U.S. market indexes have rallied all year in the face of continued concerns about the health of the U.S. economy, the European debt crisis and slowing growth in China.