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Europe open: Stocks start higher on China news, Italy under the spotlight
Stocks have started the session higher on news of a truce between China and the US in their running trade dispute.
Following two days of negotiations, and after having agreed on a framework to reduce tensions, at the weekend US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin said the Trump administration had placed its threat of tariffs on Chinese goods "on hold".
No numerical target for reducing the US bilateral trade deficit was announced, although Chinese officials said one had been agreed.
"The China agreement is a big win for USD, because if we look at the various uncertainties that the US faces, trade was far and away the #1 question. The latest Baker, Bloom & Davis indices of economic policy uncertainty are mostly below average, certainly so for fiscal and monetary policy, which are the main ones affecting the FX market. Only trade is above average," said Marshall Gittler at ACLS Global.
"With the uncertainty in this policy area down somewhat, the dollar should be able to rally further, especially as uncertainty with regards to the key fiscal and monetary policy areas in Europe has risen in response to the Italian challenge."
As of 1023 BST, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was ahead by 0.41% or 1.61 points at 396.28, alongside a 0.75% or 42.17 point advance on the Cac-40.
In parallel, Milan's FTSE Mibtel was declining by 0.44% or 103.78 points to 23,346.71, while Spain's Ibex 35 was edging higher by 0.23% or 23.10 points to 10,135.50.
Nevertheless, other sources of uncertainty were still ongoing in the background, including as regarded Brexit, Iran, North Korea or Italy.
Regarding the latter, on Sunday the heads of Italy's two main anti-establishment parties agreed on their choice of a Prime Minister, which they were set to communicate to the country's president, Sergio Mattarella, on Monday.
Indeed, the risk premium on Italian government debt continued to widen, reaching 170 basis points.
The US dollar on the other hand was on the front foot against both the euro and the pound, amid reports of an increasingly fractious Cabinet in Britain, although on Sunday foreign minister Boris Johnson backed Therese May.
It would then be up to Mattarella to decide whether or not to approve him and if to allow the Five Star and League to move ahead and form a government coalition.
In the corporate space, France's EdF was negotiating the sale of a 49% stake in a portfolio of UK wind farms in a transaction that may be worth £600m, the FT reported.