WALL Street shares bounced back overnight from steep losses stemming from a weak jobs report that raised the spectre of the recovery stalling.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 21.42 points (0.20 per cent) lower at 10,653.56 after tumbling by 160 points at one stage, following a government report that the economy shed more jobs than expected in July.
The tech-rich Nasdaq composite index was down 4.59 points (0.20 per cent) to 2288.47, while the broader S&P 500 index fell 4.17 points (0.37 per cent) at 1121.64.
Analysts said investors hunted for bargains before the market closed ahead of the weekend, without citing any specific reasons for the reversal of fortunes.
The Labour Department said early on Friday the US economy lost 131,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate remained high at 9.5 per cent, sparking a stock sell-off.
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The addition of 71,000 private jobs to non-farm payrolls was not enough to make up for 143,000 temporary government jobs lost, the department said in a report.
It was a "disappointing" report, which showed "about double the amount of jobs were shed from non-farm payrolls and fewer private sector payrolls were added than anticipated, reopening some economic recovery wounds", analysts at Charles Schwab & Co said in a note to clients.
Most analysts had expected July non-farm payrolls to fall by 87,000 and the unemployment rate to edge up to 9.6 per cent. They also forecast the private sector to have created about 82,500 jobs in July.
The monthly jobs report "does not provide much closure to the enduring slowdown concerns other than to reiterate the fact that we are stuck in a slow-growth environment", said analyst Kimberly DuBord at Briefing.com.
US stocks edge higher on jobs dataShoppers are choosy in shaky economy
