There was much less drama elsewhere, as the Japanese yen gave up early gains and eased to 110.38 per dollar JPY=. The euro was also down 0.35 percent against the U.S. dollar at $1.1173 EUR=.
The single currency had slipped overnight when the European Central Bank cut forecasts for inflation and said it had not discussed scaling back its massive bond-buying campaign, sending bond yields to multi-month lows.
Italian bond yields fell again on Friday as the head of the country's ruling Democratic Party, Matteo Renzi, said he was pessimistic over the chances of reaching a new cross-party pact on a reform of the electoral law.
Political analysts see that as reducing the chances of a snap election in the coming months.
Overnight, Wall Street had also seemingly judged that the testimony of former FBI director James Comey was not life-threatening for the administration of President Donald Trump.
Comey accused Trump of firing him to try to undermine the investigation into possible collusion by his campaign team with Russia's alleged efforts to influence the 2016 election.
"I think the market is taking less of an alarmist review of this situation because there is no smoking gun here," said Jefferies & Co money market economist Thomas Simons.
"So it's not particularly impactful for thinking about ... Trump's economic agenda to go through."
The Dow .DJI rose 0.04 percent, while the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.03 percent and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC 0.39 percent
In commodity markets, spot gold XAU= was 0.3 percent lower at $1,274.45 an ounce.
Oil prices remained subdued, with Brent having settled at its lowest since Nov. 29, the eve of an OPEC production cut deal.
U.S. crude futures CLc1 edged up 10 cents to $45.76 a barrel, with Brent crude LCOc1 at $47.95. [O/R] Both benchmarks are down roughly 4 percent in what will be a third consecutive weekly fall.
The single currency had slipped overnight when the European Central Bank cut forecasts for inflation and said it had not discussed scaling back its massive bond-buying campaign, sending bond yields to multi-month lows.
Italian bond yields fell again on Friday as the head of the country's ruling Democratic Party, Matteo Renzi, said he was pessimistic over the chances of reaching a new cross-party pact on a reform of the electoral law.
Political analysts see that as reducing the chances of a snap election in the coming months.
Overnight, Wall Street had also seemingly judged that the testimony of former FBI director James Comey was not life-threatening for the administration of President Donald Trump.
Comey accused Trump of firing him to try to undermine the investigation into possible collusion by his campaign team with Russia's alleged efforts to influence the 2016 election.
"I think the market is taking less of an alarmist review of this situation because there is no smoking gun here," said Jefferies & Co money market economist Thomas Simons.
"So it's not particularly impactful for thinking about ... Trump's economic agenda to go through."
The Dow .DJI rose 0.04 percent, while the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.03 percent and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC 0.39 percent
In commodity markets, spot gold XAU= was 0.3 percent lower at $1,274.45 an ounce.
Oil prices remained subdued, with Brent having settled at its lowest since Nov. 29, the eve of an OPEC production cut deal.
U.S. crude futures CLc1 edged up 10 cents to $45.76 a barrel, with Brent crude LCOc1 at $47.95. [O/R] Both benchmarks are down roughly 4 percent in what will be a third consecutive weekly fall.
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