Wall St edges up after Trump's China remarks; regional bank worries in focus

By Sukriti Gupta and Twesha Dikshit (Reuters) -Wall Street's main indexes nudged higher in volatile trading on Friday as investors assessed U.S. President Donald Trump's latest remarks on China, while a fresh round of earnings temporarily eased concerns over credit risks at regional banks. Trump said he would meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in two weeks in South Korea, adding that his proposed 100% tariff on goods from China would not be sustainable. "The market doesn't really know what to take when Donald Trump speaks," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth. "There's just a lot of back and forth comments with regards to China and trade tariffs and pretty much everything else. It's very difficult to have a solid understanding and to get confidence when the president speaks about anything." Meanwhile, most regional bank stocks stabilized from a brutal selloff that had extended from the previous session when Zions Bancorporation disclosed losses tied to two commercial and industrial loans and Western Alliance revealed it had initiated a lawsuit alleging fraud by Cantor Group V, LLC. The selloff brought back concerns over lax lending standards in a sector already grappling with two auto bankruptcies, more than two years after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. The KBW regional banks index was up 1.2%, rebounding from Thursday's drop of 6.3%, its biggest since early April. The broader S&P financial index ticked up 0.8%. Truist Financial shares gained 4%, after the bank reported higher third-quarter profit. Fifth Third Bancorp rose 1.7%. Zions shares added 3.8%, while Western Alliance advanced 2.4%. Robust earnings from big U.S. banks this week have set an upbeat tone for the start of the third-quarter reporting season. But with elevated equity valuations, investors are treading cautiously. At 12:07 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 239.04 points, or 0.52%, to 46,191.28. The S&P 500 gained 22.37 points, or 0.34%, to 6,651.44, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 51.84 points, or 0.23%, to 22,614.37. The main U.S. indexes were on track to register weekly gains, if current levels hold. The CBOE volatility index, investors' fear gauge, dropped to 23.3 points, after hitting its highest in nearly six months at 28.99 earlier in the day. AI-related tech stocks, which were among the biggest contributors in propelling equities to record highs this year, slipped in the day. The Philadelphia Semiconductor index dropped 0.6%, with Broadcom and Advanced Micro Devices down 2% and 1%, respectively. The S&P 500 consumer staples index gained 1.2%. Eli Lilly fell 3.1% after Trump said he would bring down prices of weight-loss drugs. State Street dropped 3.2% after the bank's third-quarter net interest income missed estimates. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.21-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.59-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P 500 posted five new 52-week highs and two new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 23 new highs and 91 new lows. (Reporting by Sukriti Gupta, Medha Singh and Twesha Dikshit in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)

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