Global stocks steady, dollar up as Trump and Xi talk

Stock markets steadied and the dollar rose on Friday at the end of a week marked by central bank decisions, as attention turned to a call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

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Wall Street's three main indices nudged higher as trading got under way, coming off record closes on Thursday thanks to another surge in the share prices of technology giants.

In Europe, London and Paris edged higher in afternoon trading, while Frankfurt was fiat.

“The key event today is the scheduled phone call between US President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping,” said Sam Cornford, head of trading at broker Ballinger Group.

Chinese media reported the phone call got under way before Wall Street opened for trading.

Trump told reporters earlier he would speak to Xi about a deal to change ownership of the hugely popular video-sharing app TikTok as well as trade.

The US president has repeatedly put off a ban under a law designed to force TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell its US operations for national security reasons.

“Trade issues are also likely to come up, and there’s some speculation this could pave the way for an in-person meeting,” Cornford added.

The call comes after high-level discussions between Washington and Beijing officials in Madrid, where they addressed trade ahead of a November tariff deadline.

Meanwhile, the British pound retreated after official data showed UK government borrowing had reached its highest level since the Covid pandemic.