Volatile global stock markets suffered losses again on Friday, but nervous investors showed signs of recovering their composure after frantic selling earlier in the week.
European markets closed lower on Friday, Wall Street struggled at the open and Asian equities finished on a broadly weaker note, but there was less turbulence than the previous few days.
Stock prices have been volatile since Tuesday, when the Shanghai stock exchange had its biggest fall in a decade and Wall Street had its worst day since the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The wave of anxiety that spread from Asian markets to Europe and the United States was caused by fears that the Chinese stock market was overvalued and might crash and that US economic growth was slowing faster than expected.
At the close in Europe on Friday, the London FTSE 100 was flat, showing a fractional gain of 0.2 points at 6,116.20 points. In Paris the CAC 40 fell 0.62 percent to 5,424.70 points and in Frankfurt the Dax shed 0.56 percent to 6,603.32 points.
"It's been a rather choppy day with the index moving in and out of positive territory, but it is starting to look as if the bulk of the downside pressures felt by equities are now coming to an end," CMC trader Jimmy Yates said, referring to trading in London.
In midday trading in the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.23 percent at 12,205.98. The tech-rich Nasdaq composite was down 0.45 percent at 2,393.50, while the broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 index had lost 0.34 percent to 1,398.44.
Dealers reacted Friday to reports that former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan had softened comments he made earlier this week, by saying he does not think a slowdown in the US economy is "probable", only "possible". The comments by Greenspan had been another factor behind the bout of nervousness that gripped markets this week and sent prices downwards.
Asian share prices were broadly lower on Friday. In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed down 1.35 percent, dropping for a fourth straight day to extend its losses to 5.3 percent over the week.
But Shanghai ended up 1.23 percent on bargain hunting. The sharpest decline in Shanghai in 10 years on Tuesday kicked off a wild week, with Chinese shares bouncing back nearly four percent Wednesday, only to slide three percent the following day.
"The market has been performing a bit irrationally in recent sessions amid sharp fluctuations, and some investors viewed it as a good chance to buy some oversold stocks," said Chen Huiqin, an analyst at China's Huatai Securities.