Asian markets mostly fell on Friday on growing concerns over the global economy after an unimpressive set of U.S. data, while weak Japanese figures and a stronger yen weighed on Tokyo.

Trade was also subdued as investors balanced their books on the last day of the quarter, which saw a rally at the start of the year subside in the final few weeks.

Eurozone finance ministers reached a landmark deal on Friday to raise their debt firewall to more than one trillion dollars, as a budget crisis in Spain underlined the need for firm defenses.

Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter left a key meeting in Copenhagen to brief reporters on an agreement raising the eurozone firewall to "in total, over 800 billion euros" ($1.067 trillion).

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion posted a quarterly loss -- disappointing first results for the firm's new chief executive, who moved to shake up the struggling company's top ranks.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based firm, on Thursday reported a net loss of $125 million for its fiscal fourth quarter to March 3, compared with a profit of $418 million a year earlier.

SolidPass CEO Selahaddin Karatas raised the issue of online privacy, user’s identity, security of passwords and mobile banking during the Arabnet summit 2012 held in Beirut Thursday.

On virtual banking, Raffy Karamian from Bank Audi highlighted the digital services provided by the bank, mainly the Novo technology. “40,000 banking operations and 19,000 video consultations have been conducted since the launch of Novo is citymall earlier this year,” he said.

Stocks fell Thursday for the third day in a row after reminders that Europe has not solved its debt crisis and the U.S. economy is far from healed, despite progress on both fronts.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 58 points in early trading to 13,069. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 fell nine points to 1,397. The Nasdaq composite index fell 15 to 3,090.

Rich nations will outstrip growth forecasts for the first half of 2012 but leading European economies will lag behind the United States, the OECD said on Thursday.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development strongly upgraded some of its forecasts in an upbeat view of the recovery from financial crisis and the European debt crisis.

European stocks fell on Thursday in cautious deals before this week's EU finance meeting which is expected to approve a boost in the firewall against future financial turmoil.

In late morning trading, London's FTSE 100 index of top shares slid 0.69 percent to 5,768.40 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 shed 0.78 percent to 6,944.74 points and in Paris the CAC 40 fell 0.49 percent to 3,410.46.

Saudi Arabia will act to bring down oil prices, Saudi oil minister Ali Naimi said in the Financial Times newspaper on Thursday as concern grows that rising energy prices are hurting the world economy.

Saudi Arabia "would like to see a fair and reasonable price that will not hurt the global economic recovery, especially in emerging and developing countries", the minister wrote in a column.

Natural gas, whose price is at record lows thanks to a shale drilling boom, is gaining traction as an alternative energy in the United States, with automakers jumping on the bandwagon.

The use of natural gas instead of oil-based gasoline to drive the country's cars and trucks "is definitely starting to take off," said Mark Hanson, an analyst at investment research firm Morningstar.

Oil prices retreated Wednesday as France said it was ready to tap strategic crude reserves and as investors awaited the latest weekly snapshot of U.S. energy inventories.

New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate crude for delivery in May, shed 98 cents to $106.35 a barrel.