NEW YORK, New York - Industrial stocks softened a touch on Wednesday, while the tech sector made moderate advances.

There was a little optimism over U.S.-China trade talks with leaders of the two countries expected to meet on the sidelines of the G20 in Osaka, Japan which begins on Friday.

"The markets are easily led by trade news," Joseph Sroka, chief investment officer at NovaPoint in Atlanta told the Reuters Thomson news agency on Wednesday. "The market anticipates that something positive will come out of the G20 meeting this weekend."

At the close on Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrials were down 11.40 points or 0.04% at 26,536.82.

The Standard and Poor's 500 eased 3.60 points or 0.12% to 2,913.78.

The Nasdaq Composite meantime gained 25.25 points or 0.32% to 7,909.87.

On foreign exchange markets the U.S. dollar continued to lose ground. In late trading in New York on Wednesday the euro rose to 1.1373.

The British pound firmed to 1.2691, as did the Swiss franc to 0.9776.

The Canadian dollar shot higher to 1.3118. The Australian dollar strengthened to 0.6987. The New Zealand dollar rose to 0.6680.

Going against the trend, the Japanese yen eased to 107.80.

In overseas markets, London's FTSE 100 declined 0.08%.

The German Dax gained 0.14%, while in Paris the CAC 40 fell 0.25%.

In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei 225 closed 107.22 points or 0.51% lower at 21,086.59.

The Shanghai Composite fell 5.79 points or 0.19% to 2,976.28.

The Australian All Ordinaries lost 18.40 points or 0.27% to 6,716.10.

The Hong Kong Hang Seng advanced 36.00 points ot 0.13% to 28,221.98.