By Josie Cox 

European stock markets snapped a three-session winning streak Friday, weighed by investor caution ahead of the results of a sweeping EU bank stress test, and after the latest case of Ebola was confirmed in New York City overnight.

The Stoxx Europe 600 closed the session 0.3% lower, mirroring declines on most major country indexes, and ending a three-session gain which had largely been triggered by hopes that the European Central Bank may discuss buying corporate bonds in a move to beef up its economic stimulus program.

On Sunday, scorecards for around 150 lenders are scheduled to be made public in a choreographed series of announcements in London, Frankfurt and other financial capitals across the continent, designed to shine light on how strong balance sheets are and how capable banks are of surviving a deteriorating economic environment.

"Following our assessment of several banking systems in a series of reports published over the past year, we have identified vulnerabilities in some banks in Italy, Greece, Portugal and Germany, while most banks in Spain and France appear well positioned," credit analysts and economists at Barclays wrote in a note.

Jens Vanbrabant, a portfolio manager at ECM Asset Management added that he anticipates most banks to pass, and the total capital shortfall to be manageable, but warned that this doesn't necessarily mean that the banking sector is out of the woods.

"Europe's banking system remains weak overall and appears unable to grow lending meaningfully in the near term," he said.

Despite shrinking their balance sheets, European banks are still the largest in the world and the industry remain "fragmented and inefficient" in a number of countries, he added.

Elsewhere Friday, Ebola reappeared on the market's radar after a doctor who had recently returned to the U.S. from West Africa tested positive for the virus.

Overall, at least 9,936 people have now been infected with Ebola due to the West African outbreak, according to the World Health Organization but Kit Juckes, a strategist at Société Générale in London said while the news of the latest case is "depressing", the ripple effect is likely to be limited.

U.S. markets shrugged it off, and in late European trade, he S&P 500 was up 0.3% at 1,949.80.

Corporate earnings also provided little solace for markets Friday.

After the U.S. market close Thursday, retail company Amazon.com Inc. reported a net loss of $437 million in the third quarter, worse than its year-earlier loss of $41 million.

In Europe Friday, Germany's BASF SE lowered its outlook for 2015 and reported a 4.8% decline in third-quarter profit, hurt by the slowing global economy and weaker demand in Europe.

In the U.K. retail space, Tesco PLC's credit rating was cut to Baa 3 from Baa 2 by Moody's Investors Service Inc. Thursday after the market close, taking the company to the cusp of junk and sending its shares close to the bottom of the FTSE index in early trading Friday.

"While in our opinion Tesco has a number of levers it can pull to enhance its financial flexibility and has no material debt maturities over the next two years, we don't expect to see too many investors adding the name to their portfolios for now," credit strategists at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities wrote in a note.

In currency markets Friday, the euro was around 0.2% higher against the U.S. dollar at $1.2673. Sterling also rose against the dollar to $1.6087 after figures showed that the economy had expanded a quarterly 0.7% in the third quarter and 3% on the year, in line with expectations.

Azad Zangana, European economist at Schroders said that even though the economy expanded less than in the previous quarter, the rate is only slightly below average growth since the start of 2013, "and remains indicative of a robust economy".

"Looking ahead, we expect a similar growth rate in the final three months of the year, but forecast a further moderation in growth in 2015 as uncertainty over the general election begins to weigh on confidence, and fiscal consolidation post the election hits domestic demand," he added.

In commodity markets, Brent crude was trading 0.9% lower by the end of the day at $86.07 a barrel, while gold inched 0.1% higher to $1,230.20 a troy ounce.

Write to Josie Cox at josie.cox@wsj.com

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