The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday afternoon pared its losses significantly with about 90 minutes left in the session, after President Donald Trump said progress was being made in talks with Chinese leadership, countering remarks made minutes earlier by one of his top economic aides. During a White House pool report, Trump said "we're getting much closer to doing something," referring to China negotiations. "I think we'll make a deal with China," he told reporters Friday afternoon. The Dow DJIA, -0.46% was down 154 points, or 0.6%, at 25,225, the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.87% traded 0.8% ;lower at 2,718, while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -1.36% gave up 1.2% at 7,342. All three benchmarks were down by at least 1% following an interview on CNBC, where Larry Kudlow, a top economic adviser for Trump, refuted a report from Bloomberg News indicating that the president requested a draft of a U.S.-China trade accord, ahead of a meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month. Kudlow did confirm that a meeting between leaders of the economic superpowers would take place. U.S. stocks are coming off three consecutive days of gains following a withering October that saw the Nasdaq loss as much as 10% of its value from a recent peak in late August. Trade clashes between Beijing and Washington remain one of the biggest drivers of stock-market moves over the past several months.