MANILA – On Friday, Asian stock markets saw a mostly positive trend as the White House confirmed President Donald Trump is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping next week.

This announcement alleviated some of the uncertainty that has been looming over the trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies. However, the likelihood of reaching a substantial trade agreement remains uncertain.

In China, stock indexes advanced following the conclusion of a significant planning session by the ruling Communist Party, which ended without implementing any major policy shifts.

In the market, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose by 0.6% to reach 26,122.10, while the Shanghai Composite index climbed 0.4% to 3,938.98.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 made a recovery from Thursday’s declines, surging nearly 1.5% to 49,380.25. Technology stocks led the gains, buoyed by the news of the impending Trump-Xi meeting.

Data released Friday showed Japan’s core inflation rate rose to 2.9% in September from 2.7% in August. Despite price pressures, the Bank of Japan is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged at a meeting next week: newly elected Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has expressed a preference to keep rates low.

In Seoul, the Kospi surged 2.3% to 3,935.75, a fresh record, as gains on Wall Street and news of the Trump-Xi summit lifted investor sentiment and eased trade worries.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped less than 0.1% to 9,027.00 after preliminary data showed Australia’s factory activity contracted to 49.7 in October from 51.4 in September.

India’s BSE Sensex was nearly unchanged, while Taiwan’s stock market was closed for a holiday.

U.S. stocks rose to the cusp of their records on Thursday, as oil prices jumped after President Donald Trump announced “massive” new sanctions on Russia’s crude industry.

On Wall Street on Thursday, the S&P 500 climbed 0.6% to 6,738.44, within 0.2% of its all-time high set earlier this month.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3% to 46,734.61, just below its own record set earlier this week. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.9% to 22,941.80.

Companies in the oil and gas business led the way, including gains of 1.1% for Exxon Mobil, 3.1% for ConocoPhillips and 3.4% for Diamondback Energy. They rose with prices for crude, which leaped roughly 5.5% after Trump announced the sanctions against Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil.

The hope is to convince Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, to end the brutal war with Ukraine, and sanctions could constrict the global flow of oil.

The jumps helped oil prices recover some of their sharp recent losses, taken because of expectations for supplies of crude in inventories to remain plentiful. Oil prices are still down more than 10% for the year so far, and early Friday, they slipped further. U.S. benchmark crude lost 22 cents to $61.57 per barrel, while Brent crude was down 21 cents at $65.78.

Strong profit reports from several big U.S. companies helped push benchmarks higher.

Chemicals maker Dow jumped 12.9%, and Las Vegas Sands rallied 12.4% after both delivered stronger earnings than analysts expected. Tesla shook off an early loss to climb 2.3% after reporting a weaker profit but stronger revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

The pressure is on companies broadly to deliver solid growth in profits. That would counter criticism that their stock prices shot too high following a 35% romp for the S&P 500 from a low in April.

In other dealings early Friday, the price of gold slipped 0.4% to $4,129.30 an ounce. On Thursday it had climbed 2% to $4,145.60 per ounce.

The U.S. dollar rose to 152.96 Japanese yen from 152.60. The euro slid to $1.1608 from $1.1618.

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AP Business Writers Stan Choe and Matt Ott contributed.