ASIA INDICES AND CRUDE OIL POSITIVE, BOND YIELDS STABLE.

• On Friday, Asian equities up bouncing from a 3-week low touched a day earlier, but gains were capped by persistent worries over the status of trade negotiations between China and the United States.

• The Worries that a "phase one" trade deal between the United States and China might not occur until next year weighed on investor sentiment on Wall Street overnight.

• Those losses were tempered by China saying it was willing to work with the United States to resolve core trade concerns, and a report in the Wall Street Journal that China has invited top U.S. trade negotiators for a new round of face-to-face talks in Beijing.

• U.S. Navy warships, on two occasions in the past few days, have sailed near islands claimed by China in the South China Sea, the U.S. military told Reuters on Thursday, at a time of tension between the world's two largest economies.

• More than 4.13 million voters in Hong Kong will head to the polls on Sunday as the city holds its district council election. It will be the first governmental polls since the city’s social unrest began in June.

• U.S. Treasury yields were broadly unchanged after snapping three sessions of declines on Thursday. The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes was at 1.78%, just a hair higher than its U.S. close of 1.772% on Thursday. The policy-sensitive two-year yield, was at 1.6046% compared with a U.S. close of 1.605%.

• In currency markets, The People's Bank of China (PBOC) has set the Yuan reference rate at 7.0306 versus Thursday's fix at 7.0217.

• The safe-haven yen was a touch stronger, with the dollar dropping 0.05% to 108.67 .The euro was up 0.05% at $1.1061.

• The Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was unchanged at 97.87.

• Oil prices retreated after hitting two-month highs on a Reuters report that the OPEC and its allies are likely to extend existing output cuts until mid-2020. U.S. crude dipped 0.41% to $58.34 a barrel.