But political turbulence in Washington, renewed fears over US-China relations and economic growth strains weighed on markets, with oil prices testing lows not seen since the summer of 2017.
“It has been a remarkably terrible trading week for financial markets amid concerns over rising US interest rates, decelerating global growth, Brexit uncertainty and chaos in Washington,” said Lukman Otunuga, a research analyst at FXTM.
US equities were mildly firmer in the late New York morning as they struggled to claw back some of the 2% the Dow lost during a torrid session on Thursday — the latest losses in a bruising December that has set up Wall Street for its worst year since the 2007 financial crisis.
Dow member Nike’s stock jumped after the company reported a 10.4% increase in quarterly earnings.
London and Frankfurt posted slim gains at the close while Paris ended unchanged as the prospect of an embarrassing Christmas time shutdown of the US government loomed.
“A potential US government shutdown and US accusations of Chinese hacking fuelled existing market concerns about economic growth,” said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets and Stockbroking.
Rising tensions between the world’s two largest economies have also unnerved markets, with China hitting back at the US after the Justice Department indicted two alleged Chinese hackers accused of having ties to Beijing’s security services.
US officials said the indictment showed President Xi Jinping had not fulfilled his pledge to stop cybercrime, but it drew a furious response from Beijing, which accused Washington of “fabricating facts”. The row erupted as the two sides prepare for talks next month to resolve their trade conflict.
Meanwhile US data showed Friday that Trump’s multi-front trade wars are dragging down growth.
“The global rally in stocks seen in the past couple of years is now well and truly over”, said David Cheetham at XTB, noting that London’s FTSE index was seeing its worst December since 2002.
“But the question going forward is whether this is the start of a bear market or simply a pause and period of consolidation,” he said.
Elsewhere yesterday, Japanese stocks again bore the brunt of Asian losses, with the Nikkei falling further into bear market territory to hit a fresh 15-month low and regional shares on course for the worst week since October.
Nissan shares slipped 2.04% after former chairman Carlos Ghosn faced a fresh allegations that could keep him in detention well into 2019.
In London, the FTSE 100 closed up 0.1% to 6,721.17 points; Frankfurt — DAX 30 ended up 0.2% to 10,633.82 points and Paris — CAC 40 ended flat at 4,694.38 points yesterday.
