AlQa'dah 26, 1433, Oct 12, 2012, SPA -- Asian stocks and the euro steadied on Friday, but were on course for a losing week as worries about weak corporate earnings and slowing global economic growth limit the appeal of riskier assets, Reuters reported. Index futures pointed to major European markets giving up some of the previous session's gains, with Euro STOXX 50 futures down 0.4 percent and financial bookmakers calling London's FTSE 100 to open down around 0.3 percent. A rally that had pushed global equities up around 15 percent from the lows of early June stalled this week. Investors were treading carefully with the third quarter reporting season under way and eyes on how J.P. Morgan fares when it posts its results later on Friday in the United States. "With concerns over the state of the global economy coming to the fore this week, along with negative sentiment surrounding a Chinese slowdown, and earnings season and the fiscal cliff garnering negative attention in the U.S., visibility for equity markets in the short term remains clouded to say the least," said Daniel Victory at Capital Spreads in London. Commodities - with the exception of oil - were also mostly set to end the week in the red as investors fretted about the slowdown in key consumer China, which is due to release its latest trade data at the weekend. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.3 percent, but Japan's Nikkei fell 0.2 percent to its lowest close in more than two months. The MSCI Asia ex-Japan index is down 1 percent on the week, while the Nikkei has shed more than 3.5 percent. Wall Street stocks ended flat on Thursday, after gains made on data showing the number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell to the lowest in more than four-and-a-half years were erased in part by a drop in Apple shares after a U.S. court overturned a sales ban on Samsung Electronic's smartphones in their patent battle. S&P 500 index futures traded in Asia were up 0.3 percent, suggesting modest gains when U.S. trading resumes.
