North American markets appeared set to bounce back early Friday after stocks tumbled for much of the week.

U.S. stocks staged a late-day rebound Thursday. After falling more than 170 points, the Dow industrials made a comeback to break a four-day losing streak sparked by fears about further increases in U.S. and global interest rates.

In Friday’s economic news, the U.S. trade deficit widened to $63.43 billion in April as higher oil prices, purchases of foreign cars and lower exports exerted upward pressure. The increase was smaller than expected.

Here at home, Statistics Canada said the Canadian economy gained 97,000 jobs in May, pushing the unemployment rate down to 6.1%, the lowest rate since December 1974. That was down from 6.4% in April.

The Canadian dollar opened at US89.97¢ Friday, up a solid 0.85 of a cent from Thursday’s close.

In other news, U.S. securities regulators launched a probe into how short sellers may have played a role in Vonage’s stock plunge since its IPO.

European and Asian markets also rebounded after slumping Thursday, London’s FTSE 100 gaining 74.6 points to 5,637.5, the Frankfurt-based DAX up 73.96 to 5,457.24, and the Paris-based CAC 40 ahead 75.82 points at 4,760.16.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index, rose 117.81 points, or 0.81%, to finish at 14,750.84 points.

In Hong Kong, the blue-chip Hang Seng Index rose 178.58 points, or 1.2%, to 15,628.69. The index fell a total of 566 points in the three days ended Thursday, and was down 1.8% for the week.

Toronto stocks ended down Thursday, recovering from a triple digit loss during the session, as investors moved back in late in the day.

The S&P/TSX composite index lost 59.90, or 0.52%, to 11,415.52, on falling commodity prices. During the session, the index was off by as much as 300 points.

The S&P/TSX Venture compositge index gave up 82.02, or 3.01%, to 2,640.67.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average closed down 7.92 points at 10,938.82, after dropping nearly 200 points in intra-day trading. The Nasdaq composite index dipped 15 points lower at 2,136, while the S&P 500 Index was off 2.9 points at 1,253.