london european stocks closed lower on friday as investors monitored economic data corporate earnings and the spread of the delta covid19 variant the paneuropean stoxx 600 ended the session down 03 with miners tumbling 28 to lead losses as the majority of sectors and major bourses finished in the red the benchmark was down about 07 on the week having hit a record high on monday on wall street the major us indexes fell friday as a worsethanexpected consumer sentiment reading overshadowed strong retail sales numbers and earnings reports the us consumer sentiment index from the university of michigan came in at 808 for the first half of july down from 855 last month and worse than economists expectations for an increase the survey showed inflation expectations rising with consumers believing prices will increase 48 in the next year the highest level since august 2008 the us consumer price index rose 54 in june from a year ago the fastest pace in nearly 12 years in asia stocks closed mixed friday as the bank of japan kept its monetary policy unchanged and downgraded its real gdp forecast for 2021 to 38 growth compared with the 4 growth projection made in april