By Sam Forgione
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock markets worldwide stumbled for a second straight day on Thursday after more weak earnings reports, while the dollar trimmed losses after hitting fresh nine-week lows.
The latest batch of lacklustre corporate results weighed down shares on Wall Street. Weak quarterly earnings from Celgene led a fall in U.S. biotech stocks, while shares of Harman International Industries fell over 7 percent after the maker of audio systems cut its 2015 profit forecast.
Apple was the biggest drag on the Dow, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq indexes. The drop came after a Wall Street Journal report said supplies of the company's much-anticipated new Apple Watch were limited at the rollout of the product after a key component was found to be defective.
Technology stocks in Europe fell after Nokia reported a quarterly profit that was well below market forecasts, sending its stock tumbling 10 percent. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares posted its biggest weekly drop and its first monthly decline of the year.
"The market has gone pretty far in a pretty short period of time, European markets specifically," said Robert Stein, chief executive at Astor Investment Management in Chicago. "With some uncertainty ahead on economic data and Fed action, investors are taking profits."
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The dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, sank to a fresh nine-week low of 94.399 and was on track for its worst monthly performance in four years.
The dollar index pared losses and the greenback rose against the yen, however, after data showed U.S. jobless claims fell to a 15-year low last week and consumer spending rose in March.
The euro hit a nine-week high against the dollar of $1.12490 . After several months of dollar strength, the greenback has weakened of late, on reduced expectations for Federal Reserve interest-rate increases and a recent run of weak economic figures.
The Fed on Wednesday left rates unchanged, noting weak economic growth, though it termed the recent slowdown as largely "transitory."
The weaker dollar helped U.S. crude oil prices hit fresh 2015 highs by making oil less expensive for holders of other currencies. Oil was on course for its best monthly gain in six years.
U.S. crude was last up 86 cents at $59.44 per barrel after hitting a high of $59.63. Brent crude was last up 98 cents at $66.82 a barrel.
MSCI's all-country world equity index was last down 3.43 points or 0.78 percent, to 437.22
The Dow Jones industrial average was last down 98.32 points, or 0.55 percent, at 17,937.21. The S&P 500 was down 12.29 points, or 0.58 percent, at 2,094.56. The Nasdaq Composite was off 58.57 points, or 1.17 percent, at 4,965.07.
Europe's FTSEurofirst 300 index closed down 0.42 percent at 1,575.28.
Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields extended Wednesday's gains to hit nearly seven-week highs of 2.11 percent after the strong U.S. data, while German 10-year yields climbed to their highest since March 9 at 0.386 percent.
(Additional reporting by Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru, Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Richard Leong in New York; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Bernadette Baum)