Wall Street ended higher on Friday as investors assessed US President Donald Trump's latest remarks on China, while quarterly results from regional banks eased concerns about credit risks.

Trump said his proposed 100 percent tariff on Chinese goods would not be sustainable, but blamed Beijing for the latest impasse in trade talks that began with China tightening control over rare earth exports.

Trump unveiled the new tariffs a week ago, along with new export controls on "any and all critical software," to go into effect on November 1.

"The market doesn't really know what to take when Donald Trump speaks," said Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth.

"There's just a lot of back-and-forth comments with regards to China and trade tariffs and pretty much everything else."

Regional bank stocks rebounded following a sell-off on Thursday, when Zions Bancorporation disclosed losses tied to two commercial and industrial loans and Western Alliance revealed it had initiated a lawsuit alleging fraud by Cantor Group V, LLC.

Truist Financial gained 3.7 percent after the bank reported higher third-quarter profit.

Fifth Third Bancorp rose 1.3 percent, Zions shares rebounded from losses the day before to close 5.8 percent higher, and Western Alliance advanced 3.1 percent.

The S&P Composite 1500 Regional Banks index climbed 1.8 percent after tumbling almost six percent the day before.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.53 percent to end the session at 6,664 points.

The Nasdaq gained 0.52 percent to 22,679 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.52 percent to 46,190 points.

Nine of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes rose, led by consumer staples, up 1.23 percent.

For the week, the S&P 500 gained 1.7 percent, the Nasdaq rose 2.1 percent and the Dow climbed 1.6 percent. (Reuters)