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Japanese stocks seesawed on Tuesday before closing down 4 percent.Credit Yoshikazu Tsuno/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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■ In China, the benchmark Shanghai composite index closed 7.6 percent lower.

■ Chinese officials responded by cutting interest rates and easing banks’ requirements.

■ Most other markets in Asia stabilized or rallied modestly. An exception was Japan, whose stocks closed down 4 percent.

■ European equities rebounded, clawing back some of Monday’s losses. The Euro Stoxx 50 rose 4.1 percent in midday trading. In London, the FTSE 100 rose 3.1 percent.

■ The international and American oil benchmarks rebounded, despite concerns about oversupply.

■ In the United States, where the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index closed down nearly 4 percent on Monday, futures contracts were pointing to a higher Wall Street opening on Tuesday.

In Depth:

HONG KONG — After a three-day rout that erased nearly $3 trillion in value from stocks globally, markets other than China’s on Tuesday showed signs that selling pressures were easing.

Shanghai stocks closed down 7.6 percent on Tuesday, after Monday’s 8.5 percent plunge, and Beijing officials sought to stabilize financial markets by cutting interest rates and reducing the amount of money banks are required to keep on hand to guard against risk.

Stocks in Europe opened higher and kept climbing, while trading in Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures suggested New York would also open the day with a strong surge of buying, following Monday’s down day.

It is too soon to know whether the rebound will last, but there were signs on Tuesday that many analysts might have been right in saying that the recent global sell-off of stocks and commodities was an overreaction to China’s specific economic and financial market problems.

Continue reading the main story Graphic The Stock Market Loses 5 Percent In a Week: What Happens Next A look at the last five times the stock market lost 5 percent in a week.

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Elsewhere in Asia, the free fall of the past few days appeared to have ended. Japan was an exception, where stocks were off by 4 percent.

Markets around the world have been jolted in recent days by concerns about China’s ability to continue as a powerful engine of global economic growth. That has added to worries about the potential impact of higher interest rates in the United States, if the Federal Reserve sticks with its stated intention to soon raise its benchmark rate.

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The sell-off had weighed heavily on commodities and regional currencies, pushing the prices of many to their lowest levels since the financial crisis. But on Tuesday, at least, futures contracts for American and European benchmark oil prices rose sharply.

Many Asian currencies rose against the dollar for the first time in days. The Japanese yen, a regional haven currency, slipped against the dollar after a four-day rally. In Europe, the euro was down slightly against the dollar.

Even if they continue to bounce back, stocks have considerable ground to regain. In the United States, for example, by the time Monday’s roller-coaster ride had ended, the benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 was down 3.9 percent. That left the index off 11 percent from its May high, called a “correction” in market parlance, its first since 2011.

The Global Ripples

Percentage change of stock market indexes on Monday.

(Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50)

Markets in Europe opened 3 percent lower, falling further during trading.

Wall Street fell more than 5 percent, but then recovered a bit.

The market plunge began in Shanghai, setting off fears elsewhere.

Beyond the questions about what exactly caused Monday’s moves, the recent market turmoil has now led many investors to turn their focus to the government officials who have become the most important players in the market since the financial crisis.

The biggest questions involve the health of China’s economy, and the capacity of the country’s leaders to manage its slowdown.

After the further falls in Chinese stock markets, China’s central bank announced cuts to both interest rates and reserve rate requirements for banks. It was the fifth rate cut since November.

The move brought interest rates down by 0.25 percent, lowering the one-year lending rate to 4.6 percent, and reduced the reserve rate requirement by 0.5 percent.

The central bank, called the People’s Bank of China, said the cuts would “further lower the costs of capital for businesses.”

“Currently, there are persisting downward pressures on the country’s economic growth,” the bank said in an explanation that accompanied the announcement. “There has also been quite large volatility in global capital markets recently, and monetary policy tools need to be applied more flexibly.”

The central bank also removed the upper limit on interest rates for fixed-term deposits of more than one year. With inflation in China generally low, the central bank said the time was ripe for such steps.

Beyond China, there is also a growing debate among market participants about whether the Federal Reserve will still follow through with plans to push interest rates higher, an action that was expected to begin in September. The market turmoil has led some, including Lawrence H. Summers, a former chief economic adviser to President Obama, to call for the central bank to reconsider those plans.

The debates in both China and the United States have often turned to more worrying questions about whether the levers that central bankers use to influence the markets are losing their power after years of extensive intervention.

With all the hand-wringing, however, many investment advisers have been urging clients to ignore the recent swings.

And although a number of American companies stand to be hurt by any weakness in China, recent data has suggested that the economy in the United States is continuing to gain strength.

Even apart from the problems in China, many analysts have said that high-flying American stocks were due for a pause after the steady upward climb that has characterized the United States stock market over the last four years.

The slump in China’s stock market has come amid conflicting signals from Beijing.

After a tremendous rally fizzled in June, the Chinese government resorted to exceptional measures to try to prop up share prices, including ordering state agencies to buy shares and banning large shareholders from selling. Those measures now appear to have failed.

In an apparent reflection of policy-making dissonance in Beijing, China’s state-controlled financial news outlets gave voice to a debate about future state intervention in the markets.

“The slump in the stock markets is destroying what remains of investor confidence, and this problem is profoundly serious,” said a front-page commentary on Tuesday in the official Securities Daily, defending interventionist policies.

However, a rival commentary in another official news outlet, The Economic Information Daily, said that it was time for the government to step back from shoring up the stock market.

“The domestic policy focus should be on steadily retreating from stock market bailout policies,” the front-page commentary said. “Government bailouts are meant to avert financial risks, not to prop up stock prices.”

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