(Updates with afternoon trading)
* Trump official downplays concerns about a global trade war
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By Nick Brown
Trump's tough approach to global trade, including newtariffs on metals imports, will not necessarily provokeretaliation from trading partners, Peter Navarro, the topadviser on international economic exchanges, said on CNBC.
Caterpillar was up more than 1 percent, while GEand 3M had made similar gains earlier beforelosing some ground.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 80.06 points,or 0.32 percent, to 24,838.18, the S&P 500 lost 5.64points, or 0.21 percent, to 2,743.84 and the Nasdaq Compositedropped 28.67 points, or 0.38 percent, to 7,468.14.
Wall Street is trying to avoid its first four-day losingstreak of 2018. Equities, especially shares of manufacturers,have been under pressure from Trump's tariff plans, including amove to impose duties of up to
In
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 0.53percent, while MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globeshed 0.21 percent.
The
Fears over political uncertainty did not disappearaltogether.
The dollar remained down against the Japanese yen, which isoften a sign that investors are uncertain about the
Bond yields, too, reflected an increased appetite forgovernment bonds viewed as less risky.
Many yields in the euro zone fell to their lowest levelsince late January, pushed down by both political uncertaintyand expectations for a slow exit from the European CentralBank's stimulus.
The
Benchmark 10-year notes last fell 2/32 in priceto yield 2.8243 percent, from 2.817 percent late on Wednesday.
The 30-year bond last fell 2/32 in price toyield 3.0608 percent, from 3.058 percent Thursday.
Oil prices edged higher in choppy trade.
(Additional reporting by Marc Jones, Fanny Potkin and KateDuguid; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski)