BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French stocks were sharply higher on Friday as investors took comfort from media reports suggesting that Washington has offered to slash existing tariffs and cancel new ones set to take effect Sunday as part of a deal to boost Chinese purchases of U.S. farm goods and obtain other concessions.
Reports say that the terms have been agreed but the legal text has not yet been finalized.
Both sides are yet to formally confirm the news ahead of a Sunday deadline, when new U.S. tariffs on $160 billion in Chinese goods will take effect.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has won a stunning electoral victory, helping remove some of the uncertainty clouding the U.K.'s path towards leaving the European Union.
The benchmark CAC 40 was up 67 points, or 1.15 percent, at 5,950 after closing up 0.4 percent on Thursday.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX