European stocks fall ahead of U.K., U.S. data

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stock markets slipped at the open on Friday ahead of manufacturing data from both the U.K. and the U.S. The Stoxx Europe 600 index (XX:SXXP) fell 0.2% to 321.61, trimming its weekly gain to 0.5%. Shares of Vodafone Group PLC (UK:VOD) (VOD) climbed 2.1% after Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that AT&T Inc. (T) executives are exploring a takeover of the U.K. telecom firm as soon as next year. Air France-KLM SA (FR:AF) lost 2.6% after Credit Suisse cut the airline to underperform from neutral. Among country-specific indexes, Germany's DAX 30 index (DX:DAX) fell 0.2% to 9,018.41, retreating from an all-time closing high reached on Thursday. France's CAC 40 index (FR:PX1) dropped 0.4% to 4,283.34, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX) was slightly lower at 6,730.53.