Recent developments in US-China trade relations, including an increase in US tariffs on $US200 billion ($A286 billion) worth of Chinese goods that went into effect on Friday, have led investors to brace for a potential escalation of the trade dispute between the world's two biggest economies. That in turn has stoked fears of a global economic slowdown, prompting a flight to low-risk assets such as government bonds.

Yet Friday's comments from the White House kept some investors hopeful of an eventual trade agreement.

"The market is getting that the statements (from Mnuchin and Trump) are more political than indicative of a change in strategy," said Oliver Pursche, chief market strategist at Bruderman Asset Management in New York.

"Nothing has changed in terms of our investment thesis. In the short term, China needs a trade deal more than the US. But in the long term, the US needs it more than China. Effectively, that's a pretty good balance."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday rose 114.01 points, or 0.44 per cent, to 25,942.37; the S&P 500 gained 10.68 points, or 0.37 per cent, to 2,881.4; and the Nasdaq Composite added 6.35 points, or 0.08 per cent, to 7,916.94.

For the week, the Dow fell 2.12 per cent, the S&P 500 declined 2.17 per cent and the Nasdaq shed 3.03 per cent.

Uber Technologies shares dropped 7.6 per cent after having opened below their initial public offering price in the ride-hailing company's long-awaited market debut.

Symantec shares plunged 12.5 per cent after the antivirus software-maker issued a profit warning and unexpectedly announced its chief executive officer would step down.

Shares of chipmakers, which draw much of their revenue from China, finished higher to snap their four-day run of declines, but the Philadelphia semiconductor index fell 5.8 per cent for the week.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.85-to-1 ratio; on the Nasdaq, a 1.22-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 20 new 52-week highs and 12 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 57 new highs and 107 new lows.

Volume on US exchanges was 7.44 billion shares, compared with the 6.9 billion average for the full session over the past 20 trading days.

Reuters