* S&P 500 higher in late morning trading
* Dollar higher against basket of currencies
* Industrials lead sector gains on Wall Street
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Major stock indexes rose worldwide on Friday and the dollar was on track for its first positive week this year, boosted by optimism that the trade conflict between the United States and China may come to an end.
Adding to strength in equities and supporting U.S. Treasury yields was data that showed U.S. manufacturing output increased the most in 10 months in December. Street was set for a fourth week of gains, with foreign trade-sensitive industrials .SPLRCI up 1.6 percent and leading sector gains for the S&P 500. The Philadelphia SE semiconductor index .SOX also rose, while Germany's exporter-heavy DAX .GDAXI was up 2.3 percent.
The trade hopes followed a report on Thursday that U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was considering lifting some or all tariffs imposed on Chinese imports. The Treasury denied Mnuchin had made any such recommendation. these 'rumors' aren't necessarily untrue, they just aren't true yet, which generally means there is some progress going on but they just don't want to tell anyone yet," said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) in Austin, Texas.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 242.89 points, or 1 percent, to 24,612.99, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 30.77 points, or 1.17 percent, to 2,666.73 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 84.89 points, or 1.2 percent, to 7,169.35.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX rose 1.85 percent and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS gained 1.17 percent.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He will visit the United States on Jan. 30 and 31 for the latest round of talks aimed at resolving the trade dispute between the world's two largest economies. released recently showed signs that the Chinese economy is losing momentum. dollar strengthened and was poised for its first weekly gain in five weeks.
The dollar index .DXY rose 0.24 percent, with the euro EUR= down 0.27 percent to $1.1364.
Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last fell 11/32 in price to yield 2.786 percent, compared with 2.747 percent late on Thursday.
Oil prices rose after an OPEC report showed that members' production fell sharply last month. crude LCOc1 was last up $1.72, or up 2.81 percent, at $62.90 a barrel. U.S. crude CLc1 was last up $1.75, or up 3.36 percent, at $53.82 per barrel.
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http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh Global assets in 2019
http://tmsnrt.rs/2jvdmXl
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