European stock markets recover

LONDON: European stock markets recovered slightly on Thursday, despite Beijing ratcheting up its rhetoric against Washington as the US-China trade war rattles on.

"European stocks have surprisingly managed to shake off a weak close on Wall Street Wednesday where indices dropped to their lowest level in ten weeks on a heady mixture of trade war worries and growing concerns over the state of the US economy," said Fiona Cincotta, analyst at City Index trading group.

"The FTSE is nudging higher mainly thanks to banking and insurance stocks."

The dollar rose against the euro, with the European single currency continuing to take a knock from increasing concerns over Italy's debt mountain.

Global stock markets had largely slumped on Wednesday on the latest salvos in the US-China trade war.

With no date set for talks to resume, and Beijing accusing Washington of "naked economic terrorism" on Thursday in its handling of the dispute, investors appeared resigned to the prospect of the dispute extending into the summer.

"We are against the trade war, but we are not afraid of it," Chinese vice foreign minister Zhang Hanhui said at a press briefing.

"This premeditated instigation of a trade conflict is naked economic terrorism, economic chauvinism, and economic bullying," Zhang added.

A veiled threat by Beijing on Wednesday to cut critical exports of rare earth minerals to the United States intensified concerns.

It was the latest salvo in a months-long row that has seen Washington and Beijing slap tit-for-tat tariffs on imports, with US President Donald Trump upping the ante in recent weeks by blacklisting Chinese telecom giant Huawei.

Any move by China, which produces 95 percent of the world's rare earths, to restrict exports to the US would have a devastating impact on manufacturers of everything from smartphones to computers to lightbulbs.

In Asian stocks trading Thursday, Tokyo and Shanghai ended 0.3 percent lower while Hong Kong dropped 0.4 percent.

In bond markets, a push towards haven purchases has seen the yield, or rate of return, on 10-year US Treasury notes plummet to the lowest level since September 2017.

"With the skirmish on the cusp of escalating into a more extensive drawn-out attritional campaign, the fall in bond yields has accelerated, forcing global growth bastions of optimism such as stocks and oil to rethink their strategies," said OANDA senior market analyst Jeffrey Halley.

May is expected to be Wall Street's first down month for the year.

- Key figures around 1000 GMT -

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London - FTSE 100: UP 0.4 percent at 7,216.34 points

Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 0.6 percent at 11,906.66

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.4 percent at 5,242.06

EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.6 percent at 3,316.82

New York - Dow: DOWN 0.9 percent at 25,126.41 (close)

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.3 percent at 20,942.53 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: DOWN 0.4 percent at 27,114.88 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.3 percent at 2,905.81 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1134 from $1.1141 at 2100 GMT

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2630 from $1.2628

Dollar/yen: UP at 109.68 yen from 109.62 yen

Oil - Brent Crude: DOWN seven cents at $69.38 per barrel

Oil - West Texas Intermediate: UP 39 cents at $59.20 per barrel