European stock gauges finished with sizable losses Thursday as February kicked off, falling for a fourth session in a row as global bond yields extended their recent climb. The Stoxx Europe 600 index SXXP, -0.50% dropped 0.5% to end at 393.52, turning negative after a morning gain. It closed at a four-week low, cutting its 2018 gain to 1.1%.

U.S. stock indexes ended mostly lower on Thursday, switching between gains and losses as fears of a pick up in inflation and rising bond yields fostered emerging volatility on Wall Street.

Stock indexes in Japan and South Korea suffered earnings-related hits Friday, with Samsung Electronics falling 3.5% after rival Apple's latest quarterly financial results. Apple AAPL, +0.21% reported a slight drop in iPhone sales in the three months through December and gave a downbeat revenue forecast for the current quarter.