World shares are mixed after White House confirms plans for Trump to meet with Chinese leader Xi

Audio By Carbonatix

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — World shares were mixed on Friday after the White House confirmed plans for President Donald Trump to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping next week.

The confirmation reduced some of the uncertainty surrounding trade tensions between the two biggest economies, though prospects for a significant trade deal remain unclear.

The future for the S&P 500 rose 0.2% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up nearly 0.1%. Oil prices have declined after surging a day earlier

In early European trading, Germany's DAX rose 0.1% to 24,235.73, while Britain's FTSE 100 edged less than 0.1% higher to 9,564.87. In Paris, the CAC 40 fell 0.3% to 8,203.50.

Chinese benchmarks gained after the ruling Communist Party wrapped up an important planning meeting Thursday without any major policy changes.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index gained more than 0.7% to 26,160.15, while the Shanghai Composite index added 0.7% to 3,950.31.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rebounded Friday from the previous day's losses, adding 1.4% to 49,299.65. Tech shares were among gainers as sentiment was boosted by the White House confirmation of Trump's meeting with Xi.

Data released Friday showed Japan’s core inflation rate rose to 2.9% in September from 2.7% in August. Despite price pressures, the Bank of Japan is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged at a meeting next week: newly elected Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has expressed a preference to keep rates low.

In Seoul, the Kospi surged 2.5% to 3,941.59, a fresh record, as gains on Wall Street and news of the Trump-Xi summit lifted investor sentiment and eased trade worries.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped nearly 0.2% to 9,019.00 after preliminary data showed Australia’s factory activity contracted to 49.7 in October from 51.4 in September.

India's BSE Sensex fell more than 0.5%, while Taiwan's stock market was closed for a holiday.

U.S. stocks rose to the cusp of their records on Thursday, as oil prices jumped after President Donald Trump announced “massive” new sanctions on Russia’s crude industry.

On Wall Street on Thursday, the S&P 500 climbed 0.6%, just 0.2% shy of its all-time high set earlier this month.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3% and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.9%.

Companies in the oil and gas business led the way, including gains of 1.1% for Exxon Mobil, 3.1% for ConocoPhillips and 3.4% for Diamondback Energy. They rose with prices for crude, which leaped roughly 5.5% after Trump announced the sanctions against Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil.

The hope is to convince Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, to end the brutal war with Ukraine, and sanctions could constrict the global flow of oil.

The jumps helped oil prices recover some of their sharp recent losses, taken because of expectations for supplies of crude in inventories to remain plentiful. Oil prices are still down more than 10% for the year so far, and early Friday, they slipped further. U.S. benchmark crude lost 7 cents to $61.72 per barrel, while Brent crude was down 10 cents at $65.89 per barrel.

In other dealings early Friday, the price of gold slipped 1.5% to $4,085.10 an ounce. On Thursday it had climbed 2% to $4,145.60 per ounce.

The U.S. dollar rose to 152.94 Japanese yen from 152.60. The euro slid to $1.1608 from $1.1618.