LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Stocks have started the session on a firm footing, tracking gains on Wall Street after multiple top officials from the US administration came out and toned down their rhetoric on international trade.
Against that backdrop, as of 0815 BST the benchmark Stoxx 600 was higher by 1.44% or 5.29 points to 372.62, alongside a rise of 1.54% or 184.07 points for the German Dax to 12,140.77 and a gain of 1.51% or 77.46 points to 5,218.85 on the Cac-40.

Meanwhile, and from a sector standpoint, some of the best gains were to be seen in: Basic Resources (2.29%) and Autombiles&Parts (1.89%).

Speaking on Wednesday evening, the US president himself commented that America was not in a trade War, although he saw little downside from one given the country's outsized shortfall in trade with the rest of the world.

"We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S.," Trump said via his Twitter account.

In parallel, the White House's chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, was reportedly stressing how no tariffs had yet been put in place by either side.

"Remember, none of the tariffs have been put in place yet. These are all proposals," he said, according to Bloomberg.

"We're putting it out for comment. There's at least two months before any actions are taken. China by the way did not enact the tariffs."

Nevertheless, Kudlow did not make any reference to whether, when or along what lines negotiations between the two sides might take place.

On that note, David Madden at CMC Markets UK said: "Now that China have levelled the playing field in terms of tariffs, the markets will be cautious about a potential retaliation from President Trump - he still feels there is a major trading imbalance between the two counties."

Dampening investor sentiment a little perhaps, the first economic data to be published on Thursday were a tad underwhelming, with Germany's Ministry of Finance reporting a much weaker-than-expected reading on the country's factory orders for February.

Total factory orders rose by just 0.3% month-on-month (consensus: 1.5%), following a 3.5% drop in January, helped by a 1.4% jump in foreign orders, mainly from other Eurozone countries.

Still on the economic calendar for later in the session, IHS Markit was due to release its services and composite purchasing managers' index for March at 0900 BST, with Eurostat was set to publish producer price and retail sales figures for the month of March at 1000 BST.

In corporate news, German regulator Bafin's head of banking regulation, Raimund Roeseler, told Handelsblatt that Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, the country's two largest lenders, should not merge or risk creating an institution that was 'too big to fail'.

Further South, Air France's unions called strikes for 17,18,23 and 24 April after management rebuffed their requests for higher wages.

Also in the spotlight, Accor announced the acquisition of a 50% stake in South Africa's Mantis Group.

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