Europe's main stock markets slipped on Friday after Tokyo closed lower and Wall Street managed only slight gains amid mounting concerns about the latest earnings season, dealers said.

In late morning trading, London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares fell 0.61 percent to 4,133.17 points.

Frankfurt's DAX 30 dropped 0.49 percent to 4,607.09 points and the Paris CAC 40 shed 0.55 percent to 3,009.02 nearing the half-way mark.

The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares declined 0.63 percent to 2,299.38 points.

On the foreign exchange market, the European single currency fell to 1.3906 dollars.

"Sentiment for UK stocks still remains negative overall, with the FTSE 100 index trading near the lows for the week," said David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index.

"There are no outstanding moves in either direction for individual stocks -- today's weakness is just the continuation of the pessimism that has surrounded the market for the best part of a month now."

Among individual companies, mining group Anglo American's share price dropped 0.27 percent to 1,646.5 pence in London after the British-South African group on Friday appointed John Parker as chairman.

It comes amid the company's fight to stay independent after recently snubbing Swiss rival Xstrata's merger bid. Parker becomes chairman on August 1, replacing Mark Moody-Stuart who is retiring after seven years in the job.

Japanese shares ended marginally lower Friday, falling for an eighth trading day in a row as the strength of the yen fanned caution about the economic outlook, dealers said.

The benchmark Nikkei-225 index dropped 0.04 percent to 9,287.28 points. A strong yen hurts exporters, while the risk of bad news next week when the US corporate earnings season is in full swing caused investors to sell.

Wall Street had squeaked into positive territory Thursday, as investors fretted that the US company results will trample on signs of recovery from the severe recession.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.06 percent to finish at 8,183.17 points. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite gained 0.31 percent to 1,752.55 points and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index climbed 0.35 percent to 882.68 points.

"There has been a sharp increase in investor pessimism in recent days," said Scott Marcouiller of Wells Fargo Advisors.

On Thursday, US stocks had received an early boost when Alcoa reported a second-quarter net loss less severe than market expectations.

"With Wall Street nearly shaking in its boots ahead of a new round of corporate earnings, Alcoa Inc.'s better-than-expected quarterly report came as a breath of fresh air," said Joseph Hargett of Schaeffer's Investment Research.