Europe's main stock gauge closed slightly lower, after gains sparked by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's remarks failed to stick. The ECB chief struck a markedly dovish tone, emphasizing downside risks to the inflation outlook and reiterating that the bank's bond buying program can be extended or expanded, if needed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Thursday suffered its worst losing streak since November as investors remained cautious a day ahead of Donald Trump's presidential inauguration.

Chinese stocks gained on stronger-than-expected economic growth to end 2016, but overall, Asian shares were again logging generally modest declines amid continued investor caution ahead of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration. The world's No. 2 economy grew 6.8% last quarter from a year earlier after three straight increases of 6.7% - which economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected to be repeated again. The full year's 6.7% growth was the least for China since 1990.