World stocks advance as investors expect US, China to negotiate after all

World stocks edged higher on Thursday as investors used signs of an easing of Sino-U.S. trade tensions to dip back into riskier assets.

The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, climbed 0.4 percent, while shares in Europe jumped 1.6 percent to a two-week high.

Cyclical sectors including basic resources, autos and banks, hit particularly hard over the past two sessions in Europe, led gains.

Sentiment was lifted as Washington expressed a willingness to negotiate, after proposed U.S. tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods prompted swift retaliation from Beijing.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.6 percent, a day after it hit its lowest in almost two months.

Japan's Nikkei ended 1.5 percent higher. Markets in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan were closed for the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday on Thursday.

China warns Trump trade sanctions on imports threaten global economy

US trade sanctions will hit the world economy, Beijing warned today, after President Donald Trump threatened to impose fresh tariffs on imports from China.
Trump said he was "considering all options," including tariffs and quotas, after he accused China of decimating the American steel and aluminium industries.

Washington has already imposed a range of tariffs on Chinese-made goods, sparking fears of a tit-for-tat trade war between the world's top two economies as China also threatens to take action.
Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters that "any sign of unilateralism or protectionism will ... worsen global trade issues and will hurt the recovering momentum of the world economy".

He added that with the sheer volume of trade and integration between the US and Chinese economies, some friction was natural.