U.S. stocks fell slightly Friday, with Intel, DuPont and Home Depot among the decliners in the final session of the market's worst week since early July.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 16.80, or 0.16%, to 10303.15, its fourth straight day in the red. The measure dropped 3.29% during the week, snapping a three week winning streak and representing its biggest weekly decline since the week ended July 2. The Dow is now off 1.20% for the year.

Intel was the Dow's worst performer with a decline of 30 cents, or 1.5%, to 19.15. DuPont slipped 45 cents, or 1.1%, to 40.32, and Home Depot eased 30 cents, or 1.1%, to 27.31.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index gave back 4.36, or 0.40%, to 1079.25. It fell 3.78% in the week, its second week in the red out of the past three weeks. The S&P 500 has declined 3.21% this year. The Nasdaq Composite shed 16.79, or 0.77%, to 2173.48 on Friday, and tumbled 5.02% during the week.

The measure is now off 4.22% for the year. Friday's stock declines came despite small increases in U.S. retail sales and consumer sentiment.

The sales growth was driven by sales of cars and gasoline, while demand fell in many other categories, adding to investors' recent worries about the sustainability of the economic recovery.

Meanwhile, a bigger than expected rise in U.S. business inventories came as sales fell, suggesting the growth in stockpiles was involuntary.

European market

European shares ended slightly higher Friday, with an early boost from strong economic data tempered by ongoing worries about euro zone sovereign debt. The Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 0.2% to close at 255.56 in a choppy session dominated by data from both sides of the Atlantic.

The euro zone economy grew at its fastest quarterly pace in four years in the second quarter, boosted by much stronger than expected German growth.

On the other hand, retail sales from the U.S. were a touch weaker than expected, increasing 0.4% in July compared with expectations for a 0.5% increase, according to data from the Commerce Department.

Meanwhile, the Reuters/University of Michigan consumer confidence gauge for August improved to 69.6 in August from 67.8 in July, topping forecasts for a rise to 68.8.

Telecoms, which are less leveraged to growth than some other sectors, were performing well for the second straight session, with France Telecom shares rising 1.2%. Overall, the U.K. FTSE 100 index rose 0.2% to close at 5,275.44, the French CAC-40 index declined 0.4% to end at 3,610.91, and the German DAX index gave up 0.4% to settle at 6,110.41.

Asian market

Asia stocks were generally higher Friday, rebounding from recent losses, though gains were capped by investors' caution after a volatile trading week and ahead of key Japanese growth data early next week.

Tokyo shares ended up 0.4%, with the Nikkei Stock Average snapping a five day losing streak on dip buying in select blue chip shares such as Sony, but skepticism over Japanese government resolve to tackle the strong yen capped the market. Investors in Japan were also looking ahead to economic growth data due out Monday for the fiscal first quarter.

The figures are expected to show the gross domestic product expanded 2.3% on an annualized basis during the quarter ended June, easing from 5% growth in the prior quarter, according to a survey of analysts by Dow Jones Newswires.

South Korea's Kospi Composite rose 1.4% and China's Shanghai Composite was up 1.2%. Hong Kong was the only major market to end in negative territory, with the Hang Seng Index easing 0.2%.

Commodities and metals

Base metals ended mostly lower Friday, giving back early gains on a mixed performance in equity markets and a stronger dollar. Stronger than expected euro zone second quarter gross domestic product data and improving U.S. retail sales and consumer sentiment data failed to provide a boost to metals prices.

Copper ended 1.4% lower at $7,156 a metric ton. Crude futures settled slightly lower Friday, down for the fourth straight session as a strenghtening dollar combined with concerns about the slowing economic recovery continue to weigh on prices.

Light, sweet crude for September delivery settled down 35 cents, or 0.5%, at $75.39 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after falling to $75.01 a barrel, the lowest price in four weeks.

Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange settled 41 cents lower at $75.11 a barrel. Oil prices fell more than $5 during the week as a string of economic indicators showed that the economic recovery is slowing around the globe, raising fears of weakening crude demand.

After posting the largest three day decline since May Thursday, futures paused Friday as some traders that bet on drops in prices locked in profits, even as the euro weakened against the dollar, making oil more expensive for buyers using other currencies.

Gold futures finished near steady as unsurprising economic data gave the metal little direction.

The most actively traded gold contract, for December delivery, fell 10 cents to settle at $1,216.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.