MANILA, Philippines — Global shares were mostly higher on Friday as the week was winding down with the Israel-Iran ceasefire still in place and signs of progress on a China-U.S. trade deal.
Investors were watching for further details after President Donald Trump said the U.S. and China had signed a trade deal. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in an interview on Bloomberg TV that the deal was signed two days ago, but did not elaborate, saying ''The president likes to close these deals himself.''
China's Commerce Ministry said Friday that the two sides had ''further confirmed the details of the framework'' for their trade talks. But its statement did not explicit mention an agreement to ensure U.S. access to rare earths, materials used in high-tech applications that have been at the center of negotiations.
''China will approve the export applications of controlled items that meet the conditions in accordance with the law. The United States will cancel a series of restrictive measures taken against China accordingly. It is hoped that the United States and China will meet each other halfway,'' the ministry said in a statement. In early European trading, Germany's DAX added 0.8% to 23,847.16. In Paris, the CAC 40 surged 1.3% to 7,656.55. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.5% to 8,779.78.
The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.2%.
Markets have settled somewhat after the upheavals of the Israel-Iran war and its aftermath.
Worries about Trump's higher tariffs have receded since the president shocked the world in April with stiff proposed levies, but they have not disappeared. The wait is still on to see how big the tariffs will ultimately be, how much they will hurt the economy and how much they will push up inflation.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 0.2% to 24,284.15, while the Shanghai Composite index gave up 0.7% to 3,424.23 after China reported that industrial profits slid 9.1% in May, the sharpest drop since last October.