On Friday European stocks fell, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index paring its weekly advance, as investors awaited a report on U.S. gross domestic product. Asian shares and U.S. index futures also declined.

Sanofi-Aventis SA declined 3.1 percent after saying an experimental drug failed to prolong survival in a key study. BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group led raw-material shares to the biggest drop among 19 industry groups on the Stoxx 600. TUI Travel Plc, Europe’s largest tour operator, slumped 3.6 percent as Natixis SA downgraded the shares.

European equities retreated, pressured by mining shares, with investors staying cautious. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down, after gaining in the previous two sessions.

Miners were the top decliners ahead of U.S. GDP figures expected to provide hints about future demand for raw materials. The STOXX Europe 600 Basic Materials index was down, while Rio Tinto fell.

Economists forecast a 3.5 percent annualized rate of growth, against a 2.6 percent rate in the final third-quarter estimate. But analysts said that the growth rate was not strong enough to significantly bring down the unemployment rate in the United States, the world's largest economy.

Asian stocks fell, dragging a regional benchmark index down for the first time this week, as Japanese banks dropped after Standard & Poor’s cut the nation’s credit rating, and commodity shares declined.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc., Japan’s two biggest publicly traded banks, sank more than 1.5 percent in Tokyo. BHP Billiton Ltd. declined 1.1 percent in Sydney. Cnooc Ltd., China’s No. 1 offshore oil producer, slumped 7 percent in Hong Kong after forecasting production growth will slow this year. Canon Inc., the world’s biggest camera maker, slid 3.1 percent in Tokyo after reporting lower-than-forecast operating profit. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 1.1 percent.