European and US futures attempt to rebound after 6-day slump

European and U.S. futures markets attempted a rebound on Thursday after Wall Street's worst day since 2011 and heavy losses in Asia gave global stocks another boot towards their worst month since the financial crisis.

Germany's DAX hit a near two-year low and London's FTSE and Paris's CAC 40 both brushed 1 1/2-year low early on, but a semblance of stability was emerging.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was just about in positive territory after a 3.7 per cent overnight drubbing for Tokyo's Nikkei and U.S. futures were up 0.7-1.3 per cent as Wall Street looked to snap a six-day run of falls.

Currency dealers were also unwinding Swiss franc and Japanese yen safety trades and Italian and Spanish bonds held their ground as Mario Draghi reiterated the European Central Bank's plans to carefully remove its stimulus.

"Uncertainties relating to protectionism, vulnerabilities in emerging markets and financial market volatility remain prominent," Draghi said at the ECB's post-meeting news conference.

"Significant monetary policy stimulus is still needed," he said. But there was also an important summary. "Is this (turbulence) enough to change our baseline scenario? No", adding too that he expected an agreement between Italy and Brussels on Rome's disputed budget plans.

Investors have become increasingly nervous about lofty stock prices, faster interest rate hikes in the United States, Italy and a Sino-U.S. trade war that threatens to hurt world growth.

Almost 60 per cent of the 2,767 stocks in MSCI's global equity index is now in the bear-market territory -- down 20 per cent or more from their most recent peaks.

There has also been growing concerns about overspending by Italy's new populist coalition.

More woes in Asia overnight had seen the global wipeout on the MSCI World since January near $7 trillion. Pan Asia-Pacific shares skidded more than 2 per cent while Japan's Nikkei tumbled as much as 4 per cent to a six-month low.

The one relief was that Chinese shares managed to close in the black after dropping as much as 2.5 per cent at one point. Fresh government support measures had failed to ease worries about high leverage and the tariff war with the United States.

"If you're a company and you're in charge of a capex budget, there is so much uncertainty about the next few years in terms of a trade war, in terms of Brexit," said Jim McCafferty, head of equity research, Asia ex-Japan at Nomura.

TALKING TURKEY

Europe's stabilisation was aided by results from Swiss bank UBS and engineering giant ABB which helped take the edge off jitters caused this week by gloomy tariffs warning from the U.S. behemoth Caterpillar.

Wall Street futures were also up between 1 per cent for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones and as much as 1.7 per cent for the Nasdaq. Wednesday's after-hours results from Microsoft and strong advertising revenues from Twitter. brought some timely cheer to tech stocks.

Google-parent Alphabet and Amazon were both up more than 2.2 per cent ahead of their results later too, while wider economy watchers were reassured as the number of Americans receiving benefits fell to a more than a 45-year low.

The ECB's "steady as she goes" message came after weak eurozone economic data this week added to angst over world growth, and a surprising slump in U.S. home sales, which suggested rising mortgage rates were sapping demand for housing.

It was not just the ECB in action either. Turkey, which has stabilised in recent weeks after having been at the centre of emerging market troubles, halted its recent rate hikes in a move that, for once, did not unsettle markets.

In fact, the lira gained. The bank has almost doubled its rates already this year to 24 per cent after a 40 per cent slump in the Turkish currency pushed Ankara to the brink of a full-blown currency crisis.

In the main foreign exchange markets, the euro recovered to $1.1410, having breached a long-standing bulwark of $1.1430.

Against a basket of currencies, the dollar eased from near a nine-week peak to 96.339. For the first time in days, it was barely budged against the safety-first Japanese yen at 112.28 yen.

Sterling also inched off a seven-week trough to $ 1.2887, having dropped 0.8 per cent overnight, and oil prices began to pick up again, having been dragged down in recent sessions by the concerns over global growth.

Brent crude was last at $76.50 a barrel, while U.S. crude was at $ 66.63. Safe-haven gold was a tad weaker at $1,236.76 an ounce.

"Expect spirited rallies," said Robin Bieber, technical analyst at London brokerage PVM Oil.