Global markets cheer trade and Brexit hopes
Hopes of deals around the world gave global markets that Friday (October 11) feeling.
Asian shares jumped after a first day of trade talks between U.S. and Chinese delegates.
Donald Trump described the discussions as "very very good", and has agreed to meet with China's top trade negotiator.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 1.3 percent.
The bullish market mood continued in Europe.
The pan-European STOXX 600 climbed 0.5 percent with shares in Frankfurt up 0.8 percent.
Germany's SAP helped with that.
Its shares jumped 7.4 percent after the world's leading enterprise software firm pre-released strong Q3 results, as well as news that its CEO is stepping down after a decade at the helm.
Bill McDermott is handing the task of completing SAP's transition to cloud computing to new co-CEOs Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein.
It ends an an era in which McDermott struck a string of multi-billion-dollar deals.
They built SAP into Europe's leading technology group, but also created complexity that frustrated many clients.
Tech sector shares were up 2.5 percent - touching a two-month peak.
There was respite from Brexit gloom too.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadakar said on Thursday (October 10) that a Brexit deal could be clinched by the end of October.
That followed a meeting in the UK with Boris Johnson.
Bucking the trend though was London's FTSE 100.
It shed 0.3 percent as shares of export reliant firms took a beating from a firm sterling.
