NEW YORK — The stock market extended a streak of erratic trading yesterday, rebounding from early losses and rising moderately after a drop in oil inventories lifted hopes for an economic recovery.

All of the major stock indexes finished with gains of less than 1 percent.

The day began with a sharp slide driven by a plunge in China's biggest stock market and followed a trading pattern seen in markets around the world this week. Stocks have alternately advanced and retreated as investors shuttle between worries about the economy's challenges, namely consumer spending and high unemployment, and nascent signs of healing.