Stocks are holding relatively steady at the tail end of a wild, whipsaw week for Wall Street

U.S. stocks are holding relatively steady at the tail end of a wild, whipsaw week for Wall Street. The S&P 500 edged up 0.1 per cent in early trading Friday, coming off its best day since 2022. After yo-yoing through several sharp swings, it’s on track to close a fourth straight losing week. That would be its longest such streak in almost a year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 93 points, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1 per cent higher. The mixed trading came after more big companies reported better profit for the spring than analysts. Expedia Group jumped 8.7 per cent.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

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 per cent before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average inched back 0.1 per cent. Nasdaq futures were off by 0.3 per cent.

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 per cent 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 five per cent after reporting that its streaming service turned its first profit and that the company was cutting 15 per cent 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 per cent and Germany’s DAX added 0.1 per cent after a report said inflation in July rose 2.3 per cent year-over-year. Britain’s FTSE 100 also rose 0.3 per cent.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index closed 0.6 per cent 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 US$1.0918.

China’s inflation came in higher than expected in July, with the consumer price index rising 0.5 per cent compared to the same period a year earlier.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 1.2 per cent to 17,090.23, while the Shanghai Composite index edged down 0.3 per cent 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 per cent and ended at 2,588.43, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 1.3 per cent to 7,777.70.

Elsewhere, Taiwan’s Taiex picked up 2.9 per cent, with chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. gaining 4.2 per cent, tracking Big Tech stocks’ rally on Wall Street. The SET in Bangkok was up 0.2 per cent.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 jumped 2.3 per cent to 5,319.31, for its best day since 2022 and shaved off all but 0.5 per cent of its loss from what was a brutal start to the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.8 per cent to 39,446.49, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 2.9 per cent 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 per cent from its all-time high set last month. Such drops are regular occurrences on Wall Street, and “corrections” of 10 per cent happen roughly every year or two. After Thursday’s jump, the index is within about six per cent 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 US$76.57 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added 32 cents to US$79.48 a barrel.