Global shares retreat on growth, euro zone woes

Global stock, bond and commodity markets saw investors selling riskier assets on Friday, as they scaled back expectations of strong stimulus from the U.S. Federal Reserve and fretted about the euro zone's debt troubles and widespread economic weakness.

European shares, which have suffered their worst run in over a month in the last few days, followed falls in Asia to open down 0.05 percent, leaving the MSCI global index down 0.35 percent.

The euro eased back from its recent seven-week highs versus the dollar to stand at $1.2543.

Pushing it down were fading hopes of a rapid new euro zone drive to end its crisis as politicians signalled new plans could take another month to put together. The dollar inched up 0.1 percent to 78.56 yen.

"The data calendar is fairly empty so we suspect that trading will be technical in nature today," said KBC economist Piet Lammens, pointing to a meeting in Berlin between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras the main point of interest for markets.

"Merkel and Samaras is of course always a wild card but we have had so many indications that the Greek issue will be put back to the end of September, so we don't expect any breaking news coming from that," Lammens said.

Triple A-rated German government bonds, traditionally favoured by risk-adverse investors, have rebounded sharply in recent days, tracking the rise in U.S. Treasuries and helped by a return of uncertainty among investors about the euro zone's progress out of its debt crisis.

They were up 13 basis points at 143.63 in early trading. Spain's bonds also saw small gains while their Italian and Portuguese counterparts dipped.

Investors will also be watching Spain again on Friday, after three euro zone sources told Reuters that Madrid is negotiating with European partners over conditions for aid to bring down its borrowing costs, though the country has not made a final decision to request a bailout.

Madrid's IBEX had jumped nearly 30 percent since comments by European Central Bank head Mario Draghi in late July sparked expectations of fresh measures to help lower the borrowing costs of Spain and Italy. But it has lost 4.7 percent since a peak hit on Monday, although charts show the index has managed to keep its four-week upward channel intact.

"Pullback would be welcomed by many money managers who failed to take part in the recent move and at some stage will need to tell clients of the underperformance," IG Markets strategist Stan Shamu wrote in a note.

Regional PMI comparison: http://link.reuters.com/dur58s

Euro zone bond yields: http://r.reuters.com/hyb65p