GLOBAL stock indexes fell amid disappointing company results and forecasts while oil prices registered their biggest weekly loss in eight months on swelling storage of crude.

    U.S. stock index futures hit session lows after the close Friday after France was rocked by multiple, near simultaneous attacks around Paris.

    S&P 500 e-mini futures were down 22 points in light volume.

    Weaker-than-expected U.S. October retail sales weighed on U.S. stocks for much of the day, with Wall Street capping its worst week since August, and dragged U.S. Treasuries yields to their lowest levels in a week.

    The MSCI all-country world index lost 1.1 percent Friday and fell 3 percent for the week, its biggest weekly decline since early September. The FTSEurofirst 300 ended down 0.83 percent, hit by weak earnings, and posted a loss of 2.7 percent for the week.

    Friday’s Paris attacks could add to market jitters, analysts said.

    “The geopolitical aspect is always out there, and anything that brings that back into the headlines will pull the buy orders fairly quickly,” said Alan Lancz, president of Alan B. Lancz & Associates Inc., a Toledo, Ohio-based investment advisor.

    The Dow Jones industrial average fell 202.83 points, or 1.16 percent, to 17,245.24, the S&P 500 lost 22.93 points, or 1.12 percent, to 2,023.04 and the NASDAQ Composite dropped 77.20 points, or 1.54 percent, to 4,927.88.

    All three major indices had their worst week since August, when fears about the health of China’s economy and stock market slammed global asset prices.

    The dollar index, which measures the dollar against a basket of other major currencies, rose 0.3 percent to 98.948.

    The index is down about 0.2 percent last week as profit-taking sent it lower earlier in the week.

    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 US$4,825 a ton, down more than 3 percent last week.

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

    (SD-Agencies)