World stocks rally runs out of steam

New York - World stocks were little changed on Friday as a global rally ran out of steam, leaving investors reluctant to place any firm bets ahead of the weekend.

Major US indices were flat or modestly lower, while London, Paris and Frankfurt stocks managed to hang on to very slender gains.

"The stock market seems to have entered a period of consolidation without any clear direction" with investors waiting for any new factors to determine where the markets will go next, be it up or down, said Briefing analyst Patrick O'Hare.

Analysts also pointed to unease over the risk of a trade war amid President Donald Trump's tough talk.

Questions about trade hung over a White House meeting Friday between Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and were expected to be at the forefront of a weekend G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers in Germany.

Europe's markets had bolted higher on Thursday with London's FTSE striking a new record peak after the Federal Reserve painted a positive picture of the world's largest economy.

Sentiment was buoyed also by the victory of the incumbent party in Dutch elections, but markets reversed course on Friday.

Earlier, Asian equities had wobbled with investors concerned about a lack of detail on Trump's tax reforms and spending promises in his first budget.

Among individual stocks, Tullow Oil shares slumped 15.1% after the British oil explorer launched a $750m deeply-discounted share sale to help slash debt.

Toshiba jumped 3.5% to ¥190.1 on reports Tokyo is mulling using state money to support the loss-hit company's plans to spin off its prized memory chip business. The government denied the reports.

US biotech firm Amgen slumped 7.0% after it released clinical data that showed its Repatha drug, in concert with other treatments, reduced the chance of a major cardiovascular event by 20%.

Analysts said the finding was a bit underwhelming given lofty expectations for the drug.