Stocks drop on company forecasts; oil slides

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global stock indexes fell on Friday amid a ream of disappointing corporate results and forecasts, while oil prices registered their biggest weekly loss in eight months on swelling storage of crude.

Weaker-than-expected U.S. October retail sales weighed on U.S. stocks and dragged down U.S. Treasuries yields.

The MSCI all-country world index lost 1 percent, while the FTSEurofirst 300 ended down 0.83 percent, weighed down by some weak corporate earnings,

European shares fell 2.7 percent for the week, their biggest weekly loss since early September.

Along with the retail data, a disappointing forecast from Cisco , citing slower order growth and weak spending outside the United States, hurt sentiment on Wall Street.

"You had both earnings concerns and macroeconomic concerns, and what I'd call technical vulnerability, all ganging up on the market this week," said Alan Gayle, senior investment strategist at RidgeWorth Investments in Atlanta, which has $50 billion in assets under management.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 202 points, or 1.16 percent, to 17,246.07, the S&P 500 lost 23.1 points, or 1.13 percent, to 2,022.87 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 71.52 points, or 1.43 percent, to 4,933.56.

Commerce Department data showed U.S. retail sales rose less than expected in October amid a surprise decline in automobile purchases.

The day's data reinforced the view of modest economic growth and tame inflation, pushing U.S. bond yields down.

Benchmark 10-year Treasuries notes were last up 12/32 in price with a yield of 2.276 percent, down 4 basis points from late on Thursday. The 10-year yield has fallen 4 basis points on the week, snapping three straight weekly increases.

The dollar edged higher against major currencies as investors focussed on expectations the Federal Reserve may still raise interest rates in December.

The dollar index , which measures the dollar against a basket of world currencies, rose 0.3 percent. The index is down about 0.2 percent this week as profit-taking sent it lower earlier in the week.

The dollar has fallen this week as profit-taking on short positions sent it lower.

Copper slid to a six-year low on persisting worries over a supply glut and slowing economic growth in China, before rebounding. The metal used in power and construction ended little changed at $4,825 a tonne, down more than 3 percent this week.

Brent settled down 45 cents to $43.61 a barrel, while U.S. crude fell $1.01 to settle at $40.74. Both benchmarks lost 8 percent on the week, their most since mid-March.

(Additional reporting by Ailstair Smout and Pratima Desai in London, Noel Randewich in San Francisco; and Dion Rabouin in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Bernadette Baum)