Donald Trump dials down the rhetoric to soothe market fears over global trade wars

European and US shares clawed back some of the sharp losses from earlier in the week as President Donald Trump stepped down the rhetoric of the US trade clash with China.

European stock markets, including the Ftse-100 in London, responded by advancing by over 1%. "With the Dow having lost over 600 points in response to Chinese trade reprisals, there is clearly a substantial degree of anxiety inherent within markets over the possibility that US-China trade talks return to square one," said Josh Mahony at online broker IG.