Stock futures, Aussie get brief boost from U.S.- China trade deal hopes

Stock futures in Europe and the United States turned briefly positive on Tuesday and the trade-sensitive Australian dollar spiked higher after a report that U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed on trade. Traders quickly pushed up prices of the Eurostoxx 50 futures (STXEc1) and DAX futures (FDXc1) while S&P 500 futures (ESc1) and Nasdaq futures (NQc1) also rose in early London trading, but gains quickly evaporated as the media report referred to a previous phone conversation between the two leaders on Nov. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump said he expects to move ahead with raising tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports to 25% from 10% currently. Trump said it was "highly unlikely" he would accept China's request to hold off on the increase, planned for Jan. 1. The comments ran counter to recent speculation about a possible deal when Trump meets Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires later this week.The Australian dollar briefly rallied 0.4 percent to $0.7269 on the news but trimmed gains later to stand 0.2 percent higher on the day at $0.7230.Rising trade tensions between the world's two biggest economies have dominated global markets this year.