European stocks finished flat Friday, with some indexes easing from multimonth highs as investors waded through corporate reports while they considered European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's hint toward the possibility of more monetary stimulus.

The Dow and S&P 500 on Friday finished near break-even, but ended well off their lows of the session, while the Nasdaq rallied and all three indexes ended a string of back-to-back weekly declines. The mixed results from the Dow components further muddied the question of whether the pace of economic activity was justifying equity valuations, especially ahead of the coming U.S. election and an expected interest-rate hike from the Federal Reserve.

Asia's main equity markets were lower early Monday, with disappointing trade data from Japan and a slightly stronger yen putting a cap on local shares. Data released Monday by Japan's Ministry of Finance showed exports falling 6.9% in September from a year earlier, in the 12th consecutive month of declines as the stronger yen continued to hurt manufacturers.