Prices on the German stock market fell slightly on Friday. Before the US job market report due in the afternoon, investors initially took profits. The leading index Dax fell by 0.66 percent to 15,407.42 points around noon. The day before, after central bank decisions, it had climbed to its highest level in almost a year at around 15,521 points.

The MDax of medium-sized companies fell by 0.57 percent to 29,638.28 points on the last trading day of the week. The EuroStoxx 50, the leading index in the euro zone, was 0.4 percent lower.

In the technology sector, disappointing quarterly earnings from Apple, Amazon and Alphabet dampened sentiment. "While investors could hardly be stopped in their euphoria after the strong figures from Facebook's mother company Meta, yesterday evening they were overcome by the bitter reality, a combination of weaker demand, rising costs and the resulting need to cut costs at the once high-flying big techs caught up," said capital market strategist Jürgen Molnar from broker RoboMarkets.

In Germany, the stocks of the medical technology company Siemens Healthineers and the chip manufacturer Infineon, which were strong the day before, went downhill, each with losses of almost one percent. The European real estate sector also fell, but lost only a small part of the high gains of the previous day.