Wall Street unsteady as markets try to recoup losses from eventful week

Early gains were slipping away on Wall Street Friday, less than 24 hours after markets closed their best day in two years, driven by a reassuring labor market report.
Futures for the S&P 500 were down about 0.2 percent before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched back 0.1 percent. Nasdaq futures were off by 0.3 percent.
WATCH: The data fueling investor concerns as stocks plunge on recession fears
Broadly strong earnings reports have helped buoy the market in a week that began with an anxious sell-off on concerns about the labor market and broader economy.
Online travel booker Expedia jumped 8.3 percent in premarket after it reported second-quarter sales and profit that beat Wall Street’s targets, despite warning of softening travel demand.
Shares in Hollywood entertainment giant Paramount jumped 5 percent after reporting that its streaming service turned its first profit and that the company was cutting 15 percent of its workforce ahead of its merger with content producer Skydance. That would amount to more than 3,000 layoffs, which Paramount said would come within its marketing and communications departments as well as legal, finance and other parts of the company.
Paramount also reported per-share second-quarter profit that quadrupled analyst targets.
Elsewhere, European stocks were modestly higher at midday and potentially set to recoup almost all the losses incurred during this week’s global market downturn. France’s CAC 40 rose 0.3 percent and Germany’s DAX added 0.1 percent after a report said inflation in July rose 2.3 percent year-over-year. Britain’s FTSE 100 also rose 0.3 percent.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index closed 0.6 percent higher at 35,025.00. The yen erased earlier losses in morning trading and extended its fourth consecutive day of gains against the dollar, with Japanese equities then losing momentum as it often falls when the yen rises.
The U.S. dollar fell to 146.70 Japanese yen from 147.28 yen. The euro was flat at $1.0918.
China’s inflation came in higher than expected in July, with the consumer price index rising 0.5 percent compared to the same period a year earlier.
The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 1.2 percent to 17,090.23, while the Shanghai Composite index edged down 0.3 percent to 2,862.19.
“The global market’s rebound was turbocharged by promising developments from the economic titans of the U.S. and China, suggesting that their economic engines are humming with a bit more vigor than many had anticipated,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
In South Korea, the Kospi jumped 1.2 percent and ended at 2,588.43, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 1.3 percent to 7,777.70.
Elsewhere, Taiwan’s Taiex picked up 2.9 percent, with chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. gaining 4.2 percent, tracking Big Tech stocks’ rally on Wall Street. The SET in Bangkok was up 0.2 percent.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 jumped 2.3 percent to 5,319.31, for its best day since 2022 and shaved off all but 0.5 percent of its loss from what was a brutal start to the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.8 percent to 39,446.49, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 2.9 percent to 16,660.02 as Nvidia and other Big Tech stocks helped lead the way.
Treasury yields also climbed, signaling that investors are feeling calmer about the economy after a report showed fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week. The number was better than economists expected.
One week ago today, weaker-than-expected employment data from the U.S. raised concerns about a slowing economy where the Federal Reserve has kept the high interest rates that aim to stifle inflation for too long. That triggered a sell-off in global markets, with the scale of the declines amplified as investors unwound their yen carry trade positions.
So far, the S&P 500 is still down nearly 10 percent from its all-time high set last month. Such drops are regular occurrences on Wall Street, and “corrections” of 10 percent happen roughly every year or two. After Thursday’s jump, the index is within about 6 percent of its record.
Still, the market’s swings look more like a “positioning-driven crash” caused by too many investors piling into similar trades and then exiting them together, rather than the start of a long-term downward market caused by a recession, according to strategists at BNP Paribas.
They say it looks more similar to the “flash crash” of 2010 than the 2008 global financial crisis or the 2020 recession caused by the pandemic.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude gained 38 cents to $76.57 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added 32 cents to $79.48 a barrel.