European shares closed lower on Friday—their first weekly loss in a month—as disappointing earnings from JPMorgan added to the "risk-off" sentiment, and tech stocks slumped.
The pan-European provisionally lower by 1.4 percent on Friday at 1,312.61 points. European bourses saw heavy losses for the whole week: the U.K. was down 2.0 percent, the German dropped 4.0 percent and the Italian slipped 4.4 percent.
reported a 19 percent decline in first-quarter profit, helping to send stocks lower on both sides of the Atlantic.
European markets
In Europe and the U.S., technology stocks led the declines. So-called momentum stocks have been dumped by investors around the world, with valuations being questioned after recent rallies in the sector.Momentum stocks are fast-rising stocks, which can unexpectedly reverse when investors fear they have overshot and a bubble is brewing.
Chip maker ARM Holdings lost 4.7 percent in trade, Logitech sank 3.9 percent, Sage Group fell 2.3 percent and Software AG slipped 2.3 percent.
The selloff began on Wall Street where stocks were slammed during the week, with high-flying technology and biotech shares leading declines. Wall Street extended the rout on Friday.
"Unfortunately we've got a confluence of events where we had a significant selloff yesterday, and Fridays have not been good this year. But that may not be the case, as we chopped a lot of wood yesterday, in the case of satiating seller demand," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities.
Read MoreStocks could continue to lose ground
"The capital markets are confused and are confusing," Commodities investor Dennis Gartman said in a research note on Friday. He added that "safety" has become the dominant investment theme as the "music in the capital markets seems to be ending for a while."
On the data front, a final reading for March inflation data in Germany managed to meet expectations. Both the yearly and monthly figures came in as expected, with consumer prices showing a tick higher of 1 percent from the year before.
Figures from the Bank of France showed the country's current account deficit narrowed slightly in February from the month before.
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