European markets move lower in lackluster short trading week; Ocado down 8%

This was CNBC's live blog covering European markets.

European markets were lower on Friday as investors wrap up a lackluster first trading week of the new quarter.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 1.1% by 1:50 p.m. London time, with all sectors bar oil and gas trading in the red. Retail stocks sunk 2% while household goods shed 1.6%.

Shares of Delivery Hero fell 3.4% in morning trade on Reuters reports that activist investor Sachem Head built a 3.6% stake in the German delivery business and may be seeking to oust CEO Niklas Oestberg.

Elsewhere, investors digested fresh data on euro zone construction and retail sales, as well as U.K. house prices.

Markets in Asia-Pacific moved lower Friday, led by declines for Japan's Nikkei 225, after comments from U.S. Federal Reserve officials fueled worries that the central bank could hold off on rate cuts.

U.S. stocks opened slightly higher after the Dow Jones Industrial Average notched its worst trading day in more than a year Thursday.

The March nonfarm payrolls came in stronger than expected on Friday morning, another sign of a resilient U.S. labor market.

The U.S. economy added 303,000 jobs last month, topping the 200,000 expected by economists surveyed by Dow Jones. The unemployment rate was 3.8%.

Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% in March, and are up 4.1% over the past year. The average workweek ticked up to 34.4 hours.

— Jesse Pound

The major U.S. stock indexes opened higher on Friday.

The S&P 500gained 0.4%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 55 points, or 0.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.4%.

— Pia Singh

Shares of Ocado sunk more than 8% in afternoon deals, after the British online grocery retailer announced that its chairman Rick Haythornthwaite