London (AFP) - Stock markets recovered Friday from the shock of disappointing earnings reports of giant tech firms that added to fears of a global recession according to traders.
The week has seen forecast-missing results from some of the world's biggest firms including Apple, Amazon, Facebook parent Meta and Google parent Alphabet.
That has caused sharp share-price losses for some of the titans, in turn sending values tumbling for tech companies worldwide.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite opened lower Friday, but quickly followed the Dow and S&P 500 higher.
"It has been a week of mostly disappointing results from US tech giants, putting significant pressure on the Nasdaq," said market analyst Fawad Razaqzada at City Index and FOREX.com.
Amazon, which on Thursday predicted a slowdown in sales growth during the year-end holiday shopping season after reporting a drop in third quarter earnings, saw its shares slump around 10 percent as trading got under way on Friday, although it recovered some of that ground in morning trading.
Even if the Nasdaq moved higher, "there’s a good chance the tech-heavy index could fall again as we head towards the end of the week," he added.
Most European markets also pulled higher.
Investors have in fact been looking for data showing that the US Federal Reserve's rate hikes are beginning to slow inflation and the economy, which they hope will convince policymakers to slow or pause further interest rate hikes.
A 10 percent monthly drop in pending US home sales, a far bigger fall than expected, showed that higher interest rates are indeed having an impact on the housing market.
But the latest inflation data showed prices and wages continuing to rise, and consumers also continuing to spend for the moment.
Patrick O'Hare at Briefing.com said the latest inflation figures "are unlikely to prompt the Fed to reconsider its aggressive rate hike plans."
In foreign exchange Friday, the euro was back below parity against the dollar following official data Thursday showing the US economy rebounded in the third quarter.
Surprise figures Friday showing Europe's biggest economy Germany had also expanded in the July-September period failed to push the euro above one dollar, where it stood earlier in the week for the first time since September.
Meanwhile, high inflation figures for Germany at 10.4 percent and Italy at 11.9 do not augur well for the European Central Bank letting up on its increases to interest rates.
Elsewhere, the yen was down against the dollar after Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the country would spend $260 billion on a stimulus package to cushion the weak economy.
The yen has plunged to 32-year lows versus the dollar in recent weeks as Japan's central bank refuses to hike interest rates despite sky-high inflation, fuelled by soaring energy prices.
"The Japanese yen is once again the worst performer today after the Bank of Japan kept its monetary policy unchanged," said market analyst Michael Hewson at CMC Markets.
Key figures around 1530 GMT
New York - Dow: UP 1.8 percent at 32,612.70 points
EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.2 percent at 3,613.02
London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.4 percent at 7,047.67 (close)
Frankfurt - DAX: UP 0.2 percent at 13,243.33 (close)
Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.5 percent at 6,273.05 (close)
Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.9 percent at 27,105.20 (close)
Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 3.7 percent at 14,863.06 (close)
Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 2.3 percent at 2,915.93 (close)
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $0.9947 from $0.9965 on Thursday
Pound/dollar: UP at $1.1591 from $1.1567
Dollar/yen: UP at 147.51 yen from 146.27 yen
Euro/pound: DOWN at 85.79 pence from 86.11 pence
West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.5 percent at $87.71 per barrel
Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 1.5 percent at $95.50 per barrel
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