A U.S. exchange delegation led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer was in Beijing this week. Chinese President Xi Jinping voiced talks will continue next week in Washington.
China and the U.S. are trying to strike a trade deal before an initially March deadline. On Thursday, White House Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow said there has been no ruling to extend the deadline for a deal.
Looking at individual stocks, Germany’s Scout24 surged to the top of the European benchmark. It comes after Hellman & Friedman and Blackstone offered to buy the online classifieds agglomeration for 5.7 billion euros ($6.4 billion), including debt. Shares of Scout24 rose 11 percent.
During the interval, France’s Eutelstat slumped to the bottom of the index amid earnings news. Shares of the Paris-listed stock tumbled 6.5 percent after come ining a fall in first-half net revenue.
Elsewhere, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called a snap general nomination on Friday. Spaniards will go to the polls on April 28. This comes after parliament rejected Sanchez minority management’s 2019 budget proposal.