Global markets mixed

On Wall Street, stocks traded slightly lower on Friday, reflecting investors' reluctance to take big positions going into the weekend.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.39 percent in early trading an ended the day down 0.09 percent, while the Nasdaq indext of technology stocks was up 0.32 percent.

Asian markets for their part had earlier been able to recover many of the losses they suffered earlier in the week amid a selling frenzy sparked by fears that China may buy fewer goods from abroad as growth grinds to a halt.

Buoyed by an unexpected rise in gross domestic product (GDP) in the US and rumors that the Fed may postpone a hike in interest rates, indexes in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo pared many of their losses from this week, although they were all down for the week once trading ended.

The decision by China's central bank to cut interest rates for the fifth time since November was also a significant factor in the Chinese markets' recovery, which in turn colored investor sentiment elsewhere and lifted shares.

Japan's Nikkei closed 3 percent higher for the day, though it was 1.5 percent lower than where it started on Monday. The Shanghai Composite index enjoyed one-day gains of 2.5 percent, but ended 10.8 percent down for the week. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 0.3 percent, but down 2.2 percent for the week.

"The short-term bottom is clear now," Zhang Gang, an analyst with Central China Securities, said of this week's hammering of Chinese stocks.

Ebbing volatility

But worries about a weaker global economic outlook have not dissipated, putting a damper on European equities. In the eurozone, Germany's DAX 30 index ended 0.17 percent lower on Friday to close at 10,298.53 points. France's CAC 40, however, rose 0.36 percent to finish at 4,675.13 points; and London's FTSE 100 was up 0.90 percent.

Meanwhile, German bond yields edged lower, defying a sudden surge in oil, as data showed consumer prices in Europe's biggest economy had been weighed down by falling energy costs.

At the same time, oil markets rallied and posted their biggest one-day gains since 2009, following the release of data on Thursday that showed the US economy had grown faster than initially thought in the second quarter.

cjc,hg/uhe (AFP, Reuters, dpa)