Global stocks rose on Friday after a report that U. S.-China trade talks were making progress and a vote by UK lawmakers to delay Britain
LONDON (Reuters) – Global stocks rose on Friday after a report that U. S.-China trade talks were making progress and a vote by UK lawmakers to delay Britain’s exit from the European Union.
European stocks markets opened higher, with the pan-European STOXX 600 index reaching its highest since October. Britain’s benchmark FTSE 100 index outperformed, boosted by growing expectations Britain will not leave the EU on March 29 without a deal.
S&P 500 futures also gained, indicating stocks would open higher on Wall Street.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He spoke by telephone with U. S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U. S. Trade Representative Robert Lightizer, and the two sides made substantive progress on trade, the news agency Xinhua reported.
Investor sentiment on trade has see-sawed on rumblings coming out of the ongoing negotiations between the world’s two biggest economies, which have both slapped tit-for-tat tariffs on each other.
Only on Thursday, Mnuchin said a summit to seal a trade deal between U. S. President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will not happen at the end of March as previously discussed because more work is needed in the negotiations.
