On Frankfurt's DAX, thyssenkrupp, an industrial steelmaker was 1.2% lower, while Commerzbank was down by 1.1% and HeidelbergCement, a building materials company, was down by 0.7%. The pan-European Stoxx 600 Index was 0.23% lower, London's FTSE 100 Index was down by 0.34%, Frankfurt's DAX was down by 0.06% and Paris' CAC-40 was 0.26% lower at the time of writing. European equity benchmarks were lower on Friday morning as declining oil prices hammered commodity stocks while stagnating retail sales in some of Europe's largest economies dampened sentiment against a backdrop of easing inflation.