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By Stephen Culp NEW YORK (Reuters) -Wall Street stocks advanced and U.S. Treasury yields rebounded on Friday as investors assessed the health of regional banks and President Donald Trump said his face-to-face trade talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping are still on. All three major U.S. stock indexes gained ground after struggling for direction in early trading, and remained on course to notch weekly gains. Benchmark Treasury yields and the dollar turned higher, while gold pulled back after a record run sent the precious metal to all-time highs. Worries over potential systemic credit problems in the banking sector abated the day after Zions disclosed it would take a $50 million loan loss in the third quarter and Western Alliance initiated a lawsuit alleging fraud by an investment firm. The KBW Regional Banking index advanced 0.7% in a partial recovery from Thursday's 5.0% plunge. "It took a night to sleep on it, but some calm has come in over the probably overblown worries in the regional bank area," said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group in Omaha. "The truth is the financial sector is likely still on firm footing; just a couple companies had some bad news, but it's not systemic." Trade tensions between Washington and Beijing were calmed by Trump's assurances that his proposed 100% tariff on Chinese imports would not be sustainable. He confirmed he would meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in two weeks in South Korea. "We've seen this movie before," Detrick added. "A week ago, President Trump was talking 100% tariffs and the market had its worst selloff in months and now today he's clearly putting some water on that fire, saying he and President Xi have a good relationship." The first official week of the third-quarter earnings season is in the books, with 58% of companies in the S&P 500 having reported. Of those, 86% have delivered stronger-than-expected results. Analysts now expect third-quarter S&P 500 earnings growth of 9.3% year-on-year, up from 8.8% as of October 1, according to LSEG data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 282.75 points, or 0.61%, to 46,233.57, the S&P 500 rose 36.72 points, or 0.55%, to 6,665.82 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 128.82 points, or 0.57%, to 22,690.59.  European stocks closed lower as signs of credit stress in U.S. regional banks dampened investor risk appetite, driving them to safe-haven assets. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose 0.09 points, or 0.01%, to 984.48. The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.95%, while Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 20.72 points, or 0.91%. Emerging market stocks fell 16.75 points, or 1.21%, to 1,362.21. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed lower by 1.24%,  to 706.02, while Japan's Nikkei fell 695.59 points, or 1.44%, to 47,582.15. U.S. Treasury yields rose and the dollar strengthened as worries stemming from the escalating trade war and regional banks' credit quality ebbed. The greenback, however, remained on track for a weekly loss. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 2.3 basis points to 3.999%, from 3.976% late on Thursday. The 30-year bond yield  rose 1.6 basis points to 4.5986% from 4.583% in the previous session. The 2-year note yield rose 3.1 basis points to 3.457%, from 3.426% late on Thursday. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.16% to 98.42, with the euro down 0.15% at $1.167. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.02% to 150.45. Oil prices stabilized but lost ground on the week amid the fog of global supply uncertainty. U.S. crude rose 0.14% to settle at $57.54 per barrel, while Brent settled at $61.29 per barrel, up 0.38% on the day. Gold prices pulled back from record highs, pressured by a firmer greenback. Spot gold fell 2.03% to $4,237.59 an ounce. U.S. gold futures fell 1.3% to $4,224.60 an ounce. (Reporting by Stephen Culp; Additional reporting by Ian Withers and Stella Qiu; Editing by Nia Williams and Nick Zieminski)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday she was hoping for an agreement between the U.S. and China that avoids a cutoff in the flow of rare earths to the global economy, adding that such restrictions would have a "material impact" on growth. Georgieva told a press conference during the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington that such a scenario would exacerbate uncertainty and hurt an already weakened global growth picture.   "There is also still a sense of anxiety, because the performance of the world economy is less than we need it to be, and because there is a very dark cloud of uncertainty still holding lower our heads, and that uncertainty has become now the new normal." (Reporting by Andrea Shalal and David Lawder; Editing by Paul Simao)

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By Alun John, Ankur Banerjee, Manya Saini and Nupur Anand NEW YORK/LONDON/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -U.S. bank stocks rebounded on Friday, clawing back some losses after fears over bad loans triggered a global selloff that swept through European and Asian markets earlier in the day. The weakness hit Wall Street, with main equities indexes seeing a mixed open before inching higher in choppy trading, as investors stayed on edge about banks. The concerns added to anxiety about escalating U.S.-China trade tensions and the global economic outlook. The U.S. KBW Regional Banking Index closed down 6.3% on Thursday. It was last up 1%, while an index tracking large-cap rivals was up marginally. Investors in bank stocks have grown jittery. After a string of credit scares and surprise writedowns since 2023, confidence has gotten another knock in recent weeks from auto bankruptcies and alleged fraud that triggered losses at some banks. "Markets have been gripped by a sense of fear and panic in the last couple of days," said Timothy Coffey, associate director of depository research at Janney Montgomery Scott. "There are different issues that are being conflated into one big issue about credit concerns." Pressure on bank stocks "is likely to continue, this panic is like a fever. Once it enters the system, it takes a while to leave." The credit issues have fanned investor unease over stretched valuations in global markets, leaving them alert to any signs of stress. Stocks have held up well, and the economy has remained resilient despite uncertainty surrounding some of President Donald Trump's policies, including tariffs. IDIOSYNCRATIC RISKS? Investors are assessing whether recent strains in U.S. credit markets could affect valuations across markets, after an overnight Wall Street selloff rippled through Asia and Europe and cast a spotlight on the AI-fueled stock rally that some fear may have inflated a bubble. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said earlier this week about credit markets, "When you see one cockroach, there are probably more, and so everyone should be forewarned." Market participants have taken note of Dimon's comment, pausing to wonder if sees signs of broader trouble that are not visible to others, one industry executive said. "There is a nervousness now after the First Brands and Tricolor bankruptcies, then a third issue seems to confirm fears that there are a lot of subprime assets," said Brian Mulberry, senior client portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management. "It appears that these are isolated cases of fraud where assets were being double booked as collateral for multiple debt structures." White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on Friday that banks have ample reserves and that he was optimistic that credit markets could stay ahead of the curve. He added in an interview with Fox Business Network that Trump administration officials led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve's Michelle Bowman are "cleaning things up right now," without providing further details.     Meanwhile, another senior industry executive said that credit problems do not appear to be widespread, and recent concerns stem from a series of fraud cases. The banking sector's exposure to two recent U.S. auto bankruptcies has rekindled concerns about lending standards more than two years after Silicon Valley Bank's failure triggered broader turmoil.  "In the post SVB world, regulators have been asking banks about their commercial real estate exposure, the percentage of their uninsured deposits, deposit strategy, how they are set up at the discount window and those conversations have not changed," said Dan Hartman, a lawyer at Nutter. REGIONAL U.S. BANKS REBOUND Strong earnings from Truist Financial, Regions Financial, and Fifth Third bolstered investor sentiment, sending most U.S. regional banks higher. "The few recent corporate bankruptcies appear to be isolated cases, with the raft of bank earnings reports this week actually noting overall improving credit quality in the third quarter," said Stephen Biggar, director of financial research at Argus Research. Zions Bancorp, at the heart of the investor scrutiny, recovered 4%, after closing down 13%. Western Alliance was up 1.5% after losing roughly 11% on Thursday.  Jefferies shares jumped 5% following a steep drop in the previous session. The latest selloff came after Zions said it would take a $50 million loss on two commercial and industrial loans, while Western Alliance disclosed it had initiated a lawsuit alleging a borrower. BROADER MARKET IMPACT  European banks fell almost 3%, with Deutsche Bank and Barclays sliding around 6%, and Societe Generale down 4.6%, after financial firms in Asia, especially Japanese banks and insurers sank. "What we see in the banks selling off overnight in the U.S., Asia wakes up to it, Europe wakes up to it, and so it spreads," said TD Securities head of global macro strategy James Rossiter.    U.S. banks borrowed nearly $15 billion from the Federal Reserve's Standing Repo Facility (SRF) on Wednesday and Thursday, the largest borrowing over a two-day period since the Covid-19 pandemic. On Friday morning, however, banks did not tap the repo facility, although they get another chance to do so in the afternoon. The SRF acts as a liquidity backstop for potential funding shortfalls. Introduced in July 2021 in response to the pandemic, the Fed's facility provides twice-daily overnight cash loans in exchange for eligible collateral such as U.S. Treasuries. "The market is clearly priced for perfection," said Bo Pei, analyst at US Tiger Securities. "This leaves sentiment vulnerable, so even isolated negative headlines can trigger outsized reactions."  (Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore and Alun John in London and Manya Saini in Bengaluru. Additional reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss, Kevin Buckland, Stella Qiu, Dhara Ranasinghe, Jose Joel, Pritam Biswas and Medha Singh. Editing by Mark Heinrich, Mark Potter, Lananh Nguyen and Nick Zieminski)

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By Rachel More and Nick Carey BERLIN (Reuters) -Porsche's decision to bring in ex-McLaren boss Michael Leiters to revive the luxury German carmaker was welcomed by investors, although they have no illusions about the challenge he faces. Leiters will take over from CEO Oliver Blume from the start of 2026 as the carmaker struggles with U.S. tariffs, sales slumping in China and a costly strategy reversal to ditch electric vehicles in favour of the combustion engines that previously made the company highly profitable. "It's a bit of a poisoned chalice," former Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer, who knows Leiters, said of the top job at Porsche. "He's certainly going to head into a storm," Palmer said. "It wouldn't be easy for anybody… but I think Michael has the experience." Leiters is a well-known figure in the sports car world after roles at McLaren, Porsche and Ferrari. During his time as SUV director at Porsche, from 2000 to 2013, he was instrumental in developing the carmaker's Cayenne model. Since then, the 54-year-old has served as chief technology officer at Ferrari and CEO at McLaren, a role he gave up earlier this year following the company's merger with EV start-up Forseven. Porsche said on Friday its supervisory board had appointed Leiters to replace Blume, who faced increasing investor pressure to leave the job and focus on parent Volkswagen, where he also serves as CEO. Porsche shares rose 1.6% on the news. Blume, at the helm for a decade, has overseen a disastrous era for Porsche since its listing to great fanfare three years ago. Its profit margin has shrivelled from 18% in 2022 to a best-case target of just 2% this year, while its shares have fallen by more than half and it tumbled out of Germany's blue-chip DAX index last month. SALES SLUMP IN KEY MARKET CHINA The crisis is playing out acutely in China, the carmaker's most important market, where sales have slumped since hitting a record of 95,671 just four years ago – nearly a third of its 2021 global total. Porsche's China sales were down 26% in the first three quarters of this year from the same period in 2024 and accounted for just 15% of the luxury carmaker's total, as consumers rejected the company's electric vehicles in favour of sporty alternatives from Chinese automakers like BYD and Xiaomi. Porsche walked back its EV plans in September in favour of hybrids and combustion-engine models, a reversal that forced Volkswagen to take a 5.1 billion euro ($5.96 billion) hit. Pal Skirta, an analyst at private bank Metzler, said that Blume's early bet on EVs has been a strategic mistake. But he said this could be fixed if Porsche delivers on promises to deliver a new combustion-engine SUV by the end of the decade. An SUV expert like Leiters is "a perfect fit" for this task, Skirta said. NEW BOSS SEEN AS GOOD FIT AS CRISIS MANAGER With Porsche badly in need of products people want to buy in large numbers, some investors have cautiously welcomed the changeover. Having led McLaren through difficult times, Leiters is seen as a good fit as Porsche's new crisis manager. McLaren has been loss-making for years, but according to regulatory filings the company significantly narrowed its full-year loss for 2024 to 135 million pounds ($180.78 million) from 843 million pounds in 2023. "Someone is returning to Porsche who is not only familiar with the company, but who has already been confronted with difficult situations in other positions," Hendrik Schmidt, head of governance at Porsche investor DWS. Part of the new Porsche boss's job will be slimming down the company's 40,000 workforce by 1,900 by 2029. Porsche's restructuring needs are expected to be more far-reaching, with the company currently assessing a second package of cost-saving measures – something which unions will also have a big say on. As an outsider, Leiters should have the freedom to take difficult decisions, former Aston Martin CEO Palmer told Reuters. "Whether Porsche allows him, it remains to be seen," he added. ($1 = 0.7468 pounds) (Additional reporting by Ilona Wissenbach; Editing by Susan Fenton and Jane Merriman)

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