European stocks broke a two-day winning run on Thursday, yanked lower by drug makers as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's comments on the pharma industry continued to bite. Auto stocks also slumped following accusations that Fiat Chrysler doctored its diesel-emissions test.

U.S. stocks rebounded from a sharp morning selloff, but still closed lower Thursday, with the Nasdaq snapping a seven-day winning streak as investors paused before the start of earnings season and a lack of policy detail in President-elect Donald Trump's first formal news conference a day ago. Equity markets have been trading mostly sideways as investors begin to question the run-up in stock prices following the election on Trump's promises of fiscal stimulus.

Many major Asian stocks indexes started lower Friday after modest overnight declines in the U.S., but the Nikkei bucked the trend as the dollar has regained some footing versus the yen. Following broad gains last week, regional equity markets have been choppy this week as liquidity steadily returned following a slowdown during the Christmas season.