Most world stock markets pause after upbeat week

London - Asian and European stock markets paused on Friday following a healthy run-up in the week, traders siad.

Investors also mulled an overnight sell-off on Wall Street where a plunge in retail giant Macy's fanned concerns about the key US retail sector.

Optimism has been high the past four days on solid US jobs data and moderate Emmanuel Macron's landslide French presidential win Sunday, pushing some markets to multi-year highs.

But traders took a step back ahead of the weekend with confidence rattled by a series of below-par Chinese data and Donald Trump's shock firing of the head of the FBI, which some fear could lead to a crisis that will knock the president's economy-boosting agenda offline.

On Thursday, New York's three main indices turned negative after Macy's announced a 39% fall in net profit, its latest in a series of weak readings that have underscored the deterioration of bricks-and-mortar stores due to the rise of e-commerce.

The figures hit other big-name stores and with the retail sector a crucial driver of the world's top economy, there are fears about the outlook for well-known shops.

In Europe on Friday, Frankfurt's benchmark DAX 30 index shed just under 0.1% and London's FTSE 100 dipped about 0.2%, while Paris turned flat.

In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index closed down 0.4% from a 17-month high, while Sydney shed 0.7% and Singapore gave up 0.3%. Seoul, which closed on Thursday at a record high, eased 0.5%. Wellington, Taipei and Manila also slipped.

But Hong Kong rose 0.1% extending a rally to five days. Bloomberg News reported, without naming sources, that China had made preparations to support the Hang Seng Index if needed ahead of the expected visit of President Xi Xinping to the city for the July 1 handover celebrations.

Shanghai - which has fallen about 7% in the past month on worries about a state crackdown on leveraged investing - ended up 0.7% with speculation mainland shares were also being given state backing.

The dollar declined against the yen and euro, having enjoyed a surge on Thursday on comments from a top Federal Reserve official backing three more interest rate hikes this year.

The unit "is weighed down by the Trump/Comey sideshow which has seen the greenback move lower against" major currencies, Stephen Innes, a senior trader at forex firm OANDA, said in a commentary.

And on oil markets both main contracts pressed on with their recovery from last week's sharp losses, with investors cheering a bigger-than-expected drop in US inventories and signs an OPEC output cut was kicking in.