LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Stockmarkets across the Continent are broadly higher, tracking gains overnight on Wall Street and in Asia ahead of the start of two days of trade talks between US and Chinese negotiators, on Wednesday.
Thus, and with US futures pointing to a higher start for stocks in the US, the spotlight on Tuesday was on a Reuters interview with the US President, in which Donald Trump indicated he did not expect much from the upcoming trade talks.

He also said he would rather the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, be more "accommodative" in its policy.

In a wide ranging interview, Trump also accused China and Europe of manipulating their currencies.

As of 1235 BST, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was ahead by 0.34% or 1.31 points at 384.54, alongside a rise of 0.61% or 75.77 points to 12,406.96 for the German Dax, while the FTSE Mibtel was ahead by 1.28% or 261.09 points to 20,732.72.

Boosting Italian stocks, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Italian government bond was retracing part of the previous day's gains, retreating by six basis points to 2.95%.

Meanwhile, and reacting to Trump's remarks, euro/dollar was gaining 0.34% to 1.1521 and the yield on the benchmark 10-year Bund by three basis points to 0.33%.

In the background, the US S&P 500 was set to move into its longest bull-market in history on the next day, extending its current stretch of gains to 3,453 days or nearly nine-and-a-half years, thus beating its previous record, which began in October 1990.

Commenting on that milestone, Tom Stevenson at Fidelity International was telling clients: "With earnings having been boosted by tax cuts, valuations are high but not excessively so.

"Meanwhile, this most unloved of all bull markets has left sentiment relatively subdued. The euphoria which typically marks the end of a bull market is notably absent this time."

On the economic front meanwhile, the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics's consumer confidence index slipped from a reading of 23.0 for July to 21.0 in August.

No economic releases were scheduled in the States on Tuesday.

Shares of French oil major Total were edging higher after the company said it had notified Iranian officials on Monday of its plans to to pull-out of the South Pars gas project.

Another French outfit in the headlines was Airbus, after America's Spirit Airlines said it was mulling the A320 as its choice for a future fleet order.

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