By Saumya Vaishampayan 

U.S. stocks fell sharply on Friday, pressured by a global selloff in equities and downbeat first-quarter corporate reports.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 240 points, or 1.3%, to 17867 and the S&P 500 declined 19 points, or 0.9%, to 2086. The Nasdaq Composite fell 57 points, or 1.1%, to 4951.

The weakness in U.S. equities followed sharp declines in stocks around the globe Friday. European stocks tumbled, while German government bonds traded at record low yields. Germany's DAX fell 1.9% and France's CAC 40 declined 1.2% as investors continued to worry about Greece's financial situation and the risk of a debt default.

"With Greece, there's just the unknown of how this is all going to play out, and we're coming down to crunch time," said John Brady, managing director at futures brokerage R.J. O'Brien.

In Asia, the Nikkei Stock Average lost 1.2% to 19652.88, on increased profit-taking and heightened concerns over forthcoming earnings results.

Investors had to contend with technical problems after Bloomberg's financial terminals went down globally on Friday, resulting in disruption for traders who rely on the data machines to trade securities and causing the U.K. to postpone a scheduled multibillion buyback of government debt. By early afternoon in Europe, a Bloomberg spokesman said that services to most customers had been restored. Bloomberg is a competitor of Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal on financial news.

In earnings news, American Express Co. on Thursday said first-quarter net income rose 6.5% as card holders increased spending and borrowing. The company said results were hurt by the strong U.S. dollar. Shares fell 4.6%.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said Thursday its first-quarter loss widened as revenue slumped. The company said it was exiting its dense server systems business, effective immediately. Revenue and the loss excluding items missed expectations, pushing shares down 12%.

General Electric Co. said its revenue fell a worse-than-expected 12% in its first quarter. The conglomerate swung to a loss as it took a charge on its plan to sell off the bulk of its lending arm and refocus on industrial operations. Still, shares rose 0.9%.

Stocks ended little changed Thursday, with the Dow shedding less than 0.1% to 18105.77. The S&P slipped 0.1% to 2104.99.

The major indexes are hovering just below all-time highs. As of Thursday's close, the Dow is 1% away from its record and the S&P is 0.6% below its record, both set in early March, and the Nasdaq is 0.8% shy of its all-time high from March 2000.

"The thing that we have been really emphasizing is allocating capital where capital is scarce," said Matt Moore, managing director and partner at HighTower. "Capital has been scarce in developed international markets," he added, pointing to European and Asian stock markets.

Even with the huge gains in European stocks this year--Germany's DAX has had several records in 2015, he continues to recommend stocks in Europe and Asia. "The U.S. is fine, but people are saying these other opportunities look pretty attractive," he said.

In economic news, consumer prices rose in March for the second month in a row, a sign that U.S. inflation may be stabilizing. The consumer-price index rose 0.2% from a month earlier, the Labor Department said. Core prices, which exclude the volatile food and energy categories, rose 0.2%. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expected prices to rise 0.3% and core prices to increase 0.1%.

The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 1.895% from 1.878% on Thursday. Yields rise as prices fall.

In commodity markets, gold futures added 0.4% to $1202.80 an ounce. Crude-oil futures slipped 1% to $56.18 a barrel.

Write to Saumya Vaishampayan at saumya.vaishampayan@wsj.com and Corrie Driebusch at corrie.driebusch@wsj.com

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