By Josie Cox 

Global stock markets steadied Wednesday, a day after a fresh jolt from China triggered steep losses.

Financial markets have endured a roller-coaster ride since China moved to devalue the yuan in mid-August. Commodities and stocks indexes around the world suffered some of their worst declines in years last month, and September has offered limited relief.

On Tuesday, weak manufacturing data out of China reignited a global selloff on concerns about the effects of slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy.

Futures contracts pointed to a 0.4% opening gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and a 0.3% rise for the S&P 500 on Wednesday. Futures, however, don't always accurately reflect moves after the opening bell.

The Stoxx Europe 600 was down 0.5% after falling 2.7% Tuesday. Most Asian markets slumped in early trade, though some recovered later in the session.

The Shanghai Composite Index ended 0.2% lower after mainland brokerages were suspected of plowing cash into the market at Beijing's direction. Analysts said that authorities in China may have wanted to cheer up domestic investors ahead of a two-day celebration in the capital commemorating the end of World War II.

The Shanghai Composite, which has been at the center of the global selloff, has lost nearly 14% of its value since this time last month despite authorities' efforts to stem losses. China's central bank last month cut interest rates for the fifth time since November and Beijing has intervened to prop up the market.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index finished 1.2% lower, while Japan's Nikkei ended the day down 0.4% Wednesday.

The Dow tumbled 2.8% Tuesday, its biggest one-day percentage loss since Aug. 24, when it fell nearly 600 points, or 3.6%.

"All those who stuck to the adage 'sell in May and go away' must have come back and started to sell again straight away," said Michael Every, head of financial markets research for the Asia-Pacific region at Rabobank, in a note to clients.

The recent market turmoil has led some analysts to question when the U.S. Federal Reserve will start to raise interest rates from rock-bottom levels.

"Our view overall is that the global financial system is so fragile and the global economy so lethargic...that it near forces central banks into a continuation of easy monetary conditions," which includes keeping interest rates low, Jim Reid, a strategist at Deutsche Bank, wrote in a note to clients.

He added that the situation is still highly uncertain.

Others were more upbeat.

"Broad economic indicators are still reasonably positive," said Peter Fitzgerald, senior fund manager at Aviva Investors.

He said that he still thinks the Fed will raise rates in September and that the central bank needs to be very careful not to let shorter-term market moves "dictate longer term monetary policy."

Oil prices continued to fall. Brent crude fell 1.5% to $48.82 a barrel, having already fallen sharply on Tuesday. The oil market is more volatile than it has been in years. Both the U.S. and global oil benchmarks rose sharply in the three days ended Monday.

The euro was recently around 0.2% lower against the U.S. dollar at $1.1276. The dollar was 0.1% higher against Japan's yen at Yen119.80.

--Chao Deng in Hong Kong contributed to this article.

Write to Josie Cox at josie.cox@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 02, 2015 06:10 ET (10:10 GMT)