Stocks, euro slip as German data, U.S. earnings drag

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. earnings disappointments, including from Amazon.com , and weak German economic data pressured world stock markets on Friday, while the euro clung to an eight-month low against the U.S. dollar.

Amazon.com was the biggest drag on the S&P 500, followed by Visa , whose results also disappointed. Amazon dropped 11 percent to $319.24, a day after reporting an unexpectedly big loss for the second quarter. Visa shares were down 4.9 percent at $211.90.

"Earnings have been the driving force of this market all week. We had a series of good reports but Amazon in particular was a disappointment and has led to some profit-taking," said Rick Meckler, president of LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Signs emerged that tensions between the West and Russia are starting to hurt confidence in Europe's dominant economy. Germany's Ifo survey revealed a hefty fall in business confidence over the last few weeks, prompting concerns the region's growth engine and driver of its recovery could be stuttering.

It was the third consecutive fall in an index which monitors the mood of thousands of German firms.

MSCI's All-World Index <.MIWD00000PUS> was down 0.4 percent and European stocks <.FTEU3> down 0.8 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 136.46 points or 0.8 percent, to 16,947.34, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 10.45 points or 0.53 percent, to 1,977.53 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 32.08 points or 0.72 percent, to 4,440.03.

The euro hit an eight-month low against the dollar of $1.3427 after U.S. durable goods orders data, which followed more positive U.S. jobless data Thursday.

"U.S. data has been good or better than expected, whereas European data continues to point to a slowdown," said Boris Schlossberg, managing director in FX strategy at BK Asset Management in New York.

The euro also fell on ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine. European officials are to continue talks over plans to squeeze Russia with further sanctions following the downing of a Malaysia Airlines that killed almost 300 people.

Dollar-traded Russian stocks <.IRTS> fell 1.6 percent to bring losses over two weeks to roughly 12 percent. Russian bonds also fell as the country's central bank unexpectedly raised interest rates.

U.S. Treasuries prices jumped, with fixed-income traders disappointed by soft spots in a U.S. durable goods report. Ten-year Treasuries were up 8/32 in price to yield 2.478 percent.

Gold edged up after dropping to a one-month low overnight, but was headed for a second straight week of losses.

U.S. crude was down 43 cents $101.64 a barrel, while Brent was up 80 cents at $107.87.

(Additional reporting by Rodrigo Campos and Sam Forgione in New York, Marc Jones in London, Lisa Twaronite in Tokyo, editing by John Stonestreet; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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