The China Mail - Stocks diverge, dollar up before Trump-Xi talks

Nearing the half-way stage in Europe, London and Paris edged higher while Frankfurt dipped.

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

Tokyo led losses among major Asian indices on expectations that Japan's central bank would hike interest rates later this year after leaving borrowing costs unchanged Friday.

Before the announcement, official data showed inflation in Japan -- the world's fourth-largest economy -- slowed in August, with rice price rises easing following a sharp spike that had rattled the country's government.

The week saw a widely expected interest rate cut from the US Federal Reserve, as well as reductions by the central bank's of Norway and Canada.

The Bank of England left rates unchanged.

"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.

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

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.

All three main Wall Street indices ended Thursday at record highs, thanks to another surge in the share prices of technology giants.

That came after news that chip titan Nvidia will invest $5 billion in struggling US rival Intel and jointly develop processors for PCs and data centres.

- Key figures at around 1100 GMT -

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 9,234.49 points

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.3 percent at 7,874.83

Frankfurt - DAX: DOWN 0.2 percent at 23,635.08

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.6 percent at 45,045.81 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: FLAT at 26,545.10 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.3 percent at 3,820.09 (close)

New York - Dow: UP 0.3 percent at 46,142.42 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1759 from $1.1785 on Thursday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3495 from $1.3550

Dollar/yen: UP at 147.99 yen from 147.97 yen

Euro/pound: UP at 87.15 pence from 86.96 pence

Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.3 percent at $67.23 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.6 percent at $62.91 per barrel

Z.Huang--ThChM