SINGAPORE - European shares fell on Friday as uncertainty across major economies added to headwinds for investors even as the rate easing cycle gets underway, while a global outage hit services from airlines, banks and financial services.

In the foreign exchange market, Tokyo's recent bouts of intervention kept traders on edge.

On Friday, major US airlines ground flights citing communications issues, while other carriers, banks and media companies around the world reported system outages were disrupting their operations.

LSEG Group's Workspace news and data platform suffered an outage that affected user access worldwide, causing disruption across financial markets.

European stocks fell 0.6 percent, while London stocks fell 0.7 percent in early trading.

In Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slid 1.6 percent and was headed for its worst week in three months with a nearly 3 percent loss.

S&P 500 futures tacked on 0.16 percent, while Nasdaq futures gained 0.3 percent.

Technology stocks continued to struggle in Asia, with South Korea's tech-heavy KOSPI index and Taiwan stocks both falling 1 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

Rates view

The euro was last at $1.0887, having fallen 0.4 percent in the previous session after the European Central Bank kept rates on hold as expected but left the door open to a September cut as it downgraded its view of the eurozone's economic prospects.

"The policy statement gives little away, offering no meaningful changes from June - continuing to stress a data-dependent approach to policy setting," said Nick Rees, FX market analyst at MonFX.

"We still think that a September cut remains the base case."

The dollar was meanwhile on the front foot, distancing itself from a four-month low hit earlier in the week against a basket of currencies.

Sterling eased to $1.2934 after data showed British retail sales volume fell by more than expected in June.

The dollar was partially underpinned by strong US manufacturing data and jobless figures that did little to suggest a significant slowing in the labor market, though traders are still pricing in a September rate cut from the Federal Reserve.

The yen last traded at 157.41 per dollar, though was headed for a slight gain for the week, helped by suspected bouts of intervention by Japanese authorities to prop up the currency and as an acceleration in the core inflation last month kept alive expectations that the Bank of Japan could soon raise interest rates.

In commodities, oil prices fell. Brent crude futures eased 0.4 percent to $84.7 a barrel, while US crude futures slid 0.58 percent to $82.34 per barrel.

Gold eased 0.6 percent, retreating from a record high of $2,483.60 per ounce hit earlier this week on the prospect of lower global interest rates.