Japan’s Nikkei rebounds after Thursday plunge

Japanese stocks recovered some of the losses sustained on Thursday when the Nikkei plunged more than 7 percent, the biggest one-day drop in two years.

The Nikkei Stock Average was up about 2.5 percent in morning trading on Friday.

Thursday's crash came after weak economic data from China showed a slowdown in manufacturing for the first time since October 2012.

Sluggish news from the world's #2 economy coupled with mixed signals from US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke about scaling back its bond-buying program were enough to rattle the markets.

More from GlobalPost: Japan stocks plunge more than 7 percent, triggering falls across global markets

US stocks closed down on Thursday but clawed back from earlier lows as a rally in Hewlett-Packard's shares boosted investor confidence.

Shares in the world's largest PC maker jumped more than 17 percent to a 52-week high, limiting the Dow Jones' slide to 12.67 points, or or 0.08 percent at the close.

Even with the plunge, Japan's Nikkei Average is still up more than 60 percent since the beginning of November 2012, according to MarketWatch.

"Thursday’s stomach-turning correction in Japan and Asia ultimately strikes us mostly as a ‘mere’ step-back …. on a continuing upward path for Japanese and Asia-Pacific equities," Nomura Securities equity strategist Michael Kurtz told MarketWatch.

Many market analysts have said that the Japanese market was due for a correction after such as steep rise.

The markets have been rallying on expectations that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's reforms, dubbed "Abenomics", will be able to pull Japan out of 15 years of deflation.

Japan's economy grew at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the first three months of 2013 as consumers increased their spending and exports to the US picked up, Japan's Cabinet Office said last week.

More from GlobalPost: Japan's GDP growth more than expected under 'Abenomics'