Wall Street extended its gains in late trading Friday.

Spurring investor optimism: a Chinese official's positive remarks about U.S.-China trade talks that'll take place on the sidelines of the G20 meeting on Saturday.

Defensive stocks like telecom and utilities led the list of gainers.

Exponential ETF's capital markets director, Josh Blechman: SOUNDBITE: EXPONENTIAL ETF'S CAPITAL MARKETS DIRECTOR, JOSH BLECHMAN, (ENGLISH) SAYING: "Heading into the U.S.-China meeting at the G20, the market is sort of holding its collective breath as they sort of wait to see a direction.

Markets don't like uncertainty." For the month, the Dow and S&P 500 gained more than 1-and-a-half percent; the Nasdaq rose slightly.

Shares of Marriott International dropped.

The company said hackers accessed about 500 million records in its Starwood Hotels reservation system, making it the second biggest breach on record.

GE shares fell.

The Wall Street Journal reports several former employees told the securities regulator the conglomerate had failed to acknowledge worsening results in its insurance business.

Oil prices declined, lifting airlines shares like UnitedContinental, Delta and JetBlue, among others.

European markets closed lower dragged down by consumer cyclical and financial stocks.