By Hilary Russ
U.S. shares, however, turned positive midday after a Chinese official said at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina that the United States and China were making progress on trade talks.
"Consensus is steadily increasing," Wang Xiaolong, director general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's department of international economic affairs, told Reuters on the sidelines of the summit.
In Europe, Frankfurt's export-heavy DAX <.GDAXI> stock index and Britain's domestic-focused FTSE 250 <.FTMC> both faced a fourth consecutive month of declines.
The German index had its worst run since late 2008, weighed by Deutsche Bank
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe <.MIWD00000PUS> shed 0.10 percent, while the pan-European STOXX 600 index <.STOXX> lost 0.17 percent.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> rose 94.44 points, or 0.37 percent, to 25,433.28, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 13.17 points, or 0.48 percent, to 2,750.93, and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 24.66 points, or 0.34 percent, to 7,297.74.
November's real humdingers have been oil and shares of Apple Inc
Swelling inventories depressed sentiment and oil prices, despite widespread expectations that OPEC and Russia would agree on some form of production cut next week. OPEC and its allies are meeting in Vienna next week to discuss oil production. [O/R]
U.S. crude oil futures
Markets could have a wild December if Trump and Xi fail to de-escalate their trade rhetoric during talks at this weekend's G20 meeting in Argentina.
"People don't want to get too optimistic heading into a meeting, because the (U.S.) president is kind of a wild card," said Robert Pavlik, chief investment strategist and senior portfolio manager at SlateStone Wealth LLC in New York. "You don't know how tough he'll be with this meeting and these negotiations."
Data on Friday added to the anticipation, showing that growth in China's vast manufacturing sector stalled this month for the first time in more than two years.
Trump has sent mixed signals, saying, "I think we're very close to doing something with China, but I don't know that I want to do it," because the money coming in from the tariffs he has imposed has been so lucrative.
The dollar rose as investors prepared for fallout from the talks, which are expected to increase volatility across markets.
The dollar index <.DXY>, tracking it against six major currencies, rose 0.5 percent, with the euro
Graphic: World FX rates in 2018 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
(Reporting by Hilary Russ; Additional reporting by Marc Jones and Christopher Johnson in London; Amy Caren Daniel in Bengaluru; Karen Brettell in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Leslie Adler)
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)