Markets drive higher

U.S. markets traded strongly higher on Thursday, with the Dow advancing in a broad rally that was led by the technology sector, which showed its strongest performance in over a month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 181.92 points, or 0.8%, to 24,356.74. The S&P 500 added 23.39 points to 2,736.61, a gain of 0.9%. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 83.75 points, or 1.2%, to 7,586.43.

European markets also closed higher as hopes over a softening in Euro-U.S. trader rhetoric boosted auto-related stocks amid news that the U.S. ambassador to Germany told German car executives that President Donald Trump would suspend threats of charges on autos imported from the EU if the bloc also annulled tariffs on U.S. cars. The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed up 0.4 percent, although it had traded higher earlier in the day and German's XETRA DAX lead the way, finishing trade up 1.2 percent. The FTSE 100 index rose 0.4% to close at 7,603.22.

Deutsche Bank share price jumps

Shares in Deutsche Bank jumped by up to 6 percent on Friday following a magazine report that JPMorgan and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China may be interested in taking a stake in the German financial giant. Despite Deutsche’s woes, its franchise is attracting interest as London’s standing as a financial centre is threatened by Britain’s looming exit from the European Union, WirtschaftsWoche cited investment bankers as saying.

Shares in Germany’s flagship bank recently touched record lows on scepticism over the appointment of Christian Sewing as CEO and his strategy to refocus on its European core while slashing global investment banking.

Trump fires first shots in Sino-American Trade War

U.S. President Donald Trump fired the biggest shot yet in the global trade war by imposing tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports with duties starting at 12:01 a.m. Friday in Washington, just after midday in China. Another $16 billion of goods could follow in two weeks, Trump earlier told reporters, before suggesting the final total could eventually reach $550 billion, a figure that exceeds all of U.S. goods imports from China in 2017.

China has said it would respond by imposing higher levies on an equivalent amount of goods ranging from American soybeans to automobiles. “The United States has violated WTO rules and ignited the largest trade war in economic history,” China’s Commerce Ministry said in an earlier statement. “Such tariffs are typical trade bullying, and this action threatens global supply chains and value chains, stalls the global economic recovery, triggers global market turmoil, and will hurt more innocent multinational companies, enterprises and consumers.”