LIVE MARKETS-And up it is!

Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters

stocks reporters and anchored today by Julien Ponthus. Reach him on Messenger to share your

thoughts on market moves: julien.ponthus.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net

AND UP IT IS! (0709 GMT)

European futures have opened and they're comfortably up as expected with the trade war

optimism doing its magic.

Futures on the other side of the Atlantic (Shanghai: 600558.SS - news) are also in the black, which seems to indicate

that global sentiment is indeed positive.

(Julien Ponthus)

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TRADE HOPES SEEN LIFTING EUROPEAN SHARES AT THE OPEN (0620 GMT)

Optimism about the Sino (Dusseldorf: 1205802.DU - news) /U.S. trade talks has lifted stocks from Wall Street to Asia and

there's really no reason it wouldn't fuel some good old risk-on across European bourses.

According to IG (Frankfurt: A0EARV - news) , financial spreadbetters expect London's FTSE to open 36 points higher,

Frankfurt's DAX up 45 points and Paris' CAC to rise 28 points.

That said, as usual with the trade war saga, sentiment could change quickly as the U.S.

position is not crystal clear.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Mnuchin discussed lifting some or all tariffs and

suggested offering a tariff rollback during trade discussions BUT also that Trade Representative

Robert Lighthizer has resisted the idea.

Here's the story:

Treasury Secretary Mnuchin weighs lifting tariffs on China-WSJ

(Julien Ponthus)

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