European stocks slipped Thursday, as Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA's 11th-hour bid to raise capital failed, dragging financial shares lower. BMPS, the world's oldest lender, had been trying to raise 5 billion euros in new private capital as it struggles under a bad loan burden. Those efforts look to have failed, after the bank said it had lost a key investor-thought to be Qatari-leaving BMPS waiting to hear whether the Italian government will bail it out.

U.S. stocks ended Thursday's thinly-traded preholiday session with modest losses as investors seemed reluctant to bid up prices of indexes that are already hovering near all-time highs. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite booked their first consecutive losses in three weeks, as the "Trump rally" lost momentum over the past few sessions.

Asian markets were broadly lower early Friday, tracking the overnight declines on Wall Street, as participants eased into the holiday season. "You're coming closer to the Christmas holiday," said Hue Lu, senior investment specialist at BNP Paribas Investment Partners. "[Traders] want to bring down the risk. They don't want any surprises."