American shares recovered after earlier losses on Friday in the wake of the release of poor July jobs figures.

But they still ended the day in the red, but were up for the week.

The US economy shed more jobs than expected in July.

The US Labor Department reported that 131,000 jobs were lost and the unemployment rate remained at 9.5% as federal and local governments slashed jobs with more than 200,000 going in this area, including temporary census workers.

Most economists had expected non-farm payrolls to fall by between 65,000 and 87,000 and the unemployment rate edged up to 9.6%.

As it was, only 71,000 private jobs were created in July and the 83,000 private jobs reported in June became just 31,000 after revisions in the latest report.

More worrying is that the number of people available for work in the US has dropped by one million people in the past three months, as good an indication as any of just how miserable the US jobs market currently is.

The strong second quarter profit reporting season remains at odds then to the reality of the broader economy.

Thomson Reuters says that 75% of the 440 S&P 500 companies to have reported second quarter earnings have been above forecast.

Companies are holding record amounts of cash, but debt is at an all time high as well for non-financial companies.

The Dow dropped 21.42 points, or 0.20%, to 10,653.56 on Friday, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index shed 4.17 points, or 0.37%, to 1,121.64. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 4.59 points, or 0.20%, to 2,288.47.

For the week, the Dow and the S&P 500 each rose 1.8%, while the Nasdaq was up 1.5%.

Shares of grain companies like Archer-Daniels-Midland Co and Bunge Ltd continued to do well after a 5%-plus rise on Thursday off the back of surging wheat prices.

European shares rose last week on good earnings results from banks, industrials, food companies and resource stocks.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 1.3% to 258.71, extending July's rise of 4.9%.

Seventeen of the 18 major markets in Western Europe rose (Iceland was the one that fell).

Paris's CAC rose 2%, Germany's DAX was up 1.8% and London's FTSE added 1.4% over the week, despite falling for four days in a row, including Friday.

In Asia it was another up week, the fifth in a row for the region's markets.

The MSIC Asia Pacific Index added 2.8% to a three-month high of 122.40.

It's still down 5.2% for the year so far.

Tokyo's Nikkei added 1.1%, South Korea's Kospi Index rose 1.4%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was up 3.1%, while China's Shanghai Composite Index increased 0.8%.

Australian shares also had their fifth weekly rise in succession last week.

The ASX200 index ended the day flat at 4,566.1 points, while the All Ordinaries index was up just 1.4 points at 4,586.3 points.

For the week, the ASX200 was up 1.6%.