VIENNA (dpa-AFX) - European stocks finished a brutal week on a downbeat note Friday, as markets remain skeptical of efforts to end the region's sovereign debt crisis.
The bickering continued among political leaders, with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti taking a veiled swipe at German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Monti said the the sovereign debt solution 'should be wrapped in a long-term sustainable approach, not just to feed short-term hunger for rigor in some countries,' in reference to Germany's insistence on crippling austerity measures for big debtors.
Meanwhile, the French economy is in a better position than the U.K.'s, French Finance Minister Francois Baroin told French radio station Europe 1 on Friday. The minister also qualified the economic situation in the U.K. as 'worrying.'
Fitch Ratings late Thursday downgraded Barclays and Credit Suisse to 'A' from 'AA-', while BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank were lowered to 'A+' from 'AA-'. However, Fitch affirmed the credit ratings on Swiss banking giant UBS.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks unofficially lost 0.85 percent, for a weekly loss of nealy 6 percent.
The Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, eased 0.52 percent today.
The German DAX is lost 0.29 percent, the French CAC 40 fell 0.88 percent and Switzerland's SMI was down 0.98 percent a few minutes before the closing bell. The UK's FTSE 100 was up 0.06 percent.
Credit Suisse raised pharma sector to 'Overweight' from 'Neutral.' In Frankfurt, Bayer was up 0.5 percent.
Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler are in negative territory. Data showed that new car registrations in Europe decreased in November, at the steepest pace since June this year.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Automobiles & Parts Index was up 1.15 percent, but Daimler and BMW were in the red.
Hotel group Accor agreed to acquire Mirvac Hotels & Resorts, the hotel management arm of Australia-based Mirvac Group, for 195 million euros. Shares rose 1 percent.
SAP AG lost 2.7 percent after the Financial Times Deutschland reported that the software maker has no plans for further acquisitions.
Credit Agricole has agreed to sell 100 percent of Credit Agricole Private Equity to Coller Capital, a global investor in private equity's secondary market. Shares were up fractionally.
EDF was up 0.75 percent. Goldman Sachs raised its price target on the stock.
3i Infrastructure was up 1.1 percent after announcing that a company-led consortium agreed to buy Swedish state-owned utility Vattenfall AB's electricity distribution and heat businesses in Finland for about 1.54 billion euros.
Hedge fund Man Group Plc fell 4.3 percent after Deutsche Bank AG recommended selling the stock.
In economic news from Europe, the euro area trade surplus fell to EUR 1.1 billion in October from EUR 3.1 billion in the same period of last year, Eurostat said Friday.
Elsewhere, U.S. consumer prices held steady in November, according to figures released Friday by the Labor Department, with lower energy prices offsetting minor increases in other sectors.
The consumer price index for November was unchanged from October levels, which showed a 0.1 percent decline from September. Most economists had predicted a slight, 0.1 percent increase in the cost of consumer goods.
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