U.S. stock futures surge as China markets stage recovery

Trading in China was automatically suspended as a result.

The index was down 5.3 percent on the week, in its biggest weekly slump since last August, when China similarly roiled stock markets by allowing its currency to weaken.

After markets closed Thursday, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and Japan’s Nikkei 225 indices had tumbled 3 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, investors continued to look to oil prices amid rising tensions in the Middle East. Crude prices rose modestly early Friday, but remained near multi-year lows.

Adding to the gloom, oil prices fell to near 12-year lows and copper prices touched their lowest since 2009, weighing on energy and material shares.

Yesterday the cost of the futures of Brent crude oil fell to levels not seen since April 2004, now it is below $ 33. All 10 of the S&P 500 industrial sectors are trading lower. Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 58.75 points, or 1.37 percent, on volume of 77,687 contracts. Aerospace company Boeing lost $4.72, or 3.4 percent, to $134.11 and railroad operator Union Pacific shed $1.24, or 1.7 percent, to $73.59.

Specialist Meric Greenbaum works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as stocks plunge Monday, Jan. 4, 2016. Apple sank 4 percent and has now fallen 27 percent since July.

Chinese authorities have been trying for months to restore confidence in the country’s market after a plunge in June rattled global markets and prompted a panicked, multibillion-dollar government intervention.

ASIA’S DAY: China’s stock market also rose to end a tumultuous week.

The upbeat suggested that a recent manufacturing-led slowdown in economic growth would be temporary.

“When you have a market that begins a year with weakness, people are sort of suspect anyway”.

“Oil markets will be concerned that this could be an incremental step in a deteriorating political situation that might ultimately threaten world oil supply”, Ric Spooner, chief analyst at CMC Markets, said in a commentary. Most investors were devastated today but for some it’s an opportunity to accumulate. The Stoxx Europe 600 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 also lost more than 2 percent. Despite sharp revisions higher to job numbers for the previous two months, some traders expressed concern about a lack of wage growth. Shopping network Evine Live, the former Shop NBC, fell to a new 52-week low of $1.50 per share, finishing the day down 8% (13 cents per share).

Data on Friday showed nonfarm payrolls surged in December and unemployment rate held steady at 5 percent.

But there are lots of signs of the rising fear on Wall Street.

Some retail stocks performed well. Teen retailer Zumiez raised its forecast for the fiscal fourth quarter, and its stock jumped $1.39, or 9.2 percent, to $16.47.

The price of gold and silver both rose more than 1 percent, with gold at $1,103.90 an ounce and silver at $14.16 an ounce.