Here is how major stock markets outside the United States ended on Thursday.
Smith & Nephew shares also soured the mood, shedding 10 percent after the British medical device firm missed forecasts for second-quarter earnings.
Investors were holding their breath ahead of the publication on Friday of US employment data for July, hoping for signs that growth in the world's biggest economy was sustainable.
The FTSE Eurotop-300 index of pan-European blue chips added 0.14 percent to end unofficially at 977.5 points in summer-thinned volumes of barely 2 billion euros.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index lost 7.1 points to end at 3,538.9.
The All-share index closed at 10,419.49 points, down 28.24 or 0.27 percent.
The All Gold index closed at 1,697.19 points, down 18.62 or 1.09 percent, while the Industrial index closed at 7,380.28 points, down 5.85 or 0.08 percent.