As the trade spat between the US and China has shown signs of receding, sentiment on financial markets has improved. Donald Trump has welcomed the speech of President Xi on Chinese openness and this clearly improves the prospects of an agreement between the world’s two largest economies that can hopefully avert a growth busting trade war. Trading in recent weeks has been newsflow driven, choppy and lacking trend. Perhaps now, this can change. However, geopolitics never seems to be too far off the agenda, with the potential for a bombing campaign to be ramped up in Syria. This is helping to underpin the oil price ... (full story)