The trade war between US and China has been escalating for more than a year and in August it escalated further. New tariffs were put in place from both sides and the rhetoric became stronger. But the rhetoric has softened in September and both sides have increased hopes for the October meeting.

China’s Commerce Ministry made some more positive comments a while ago today as following:

• Still discussing October trade talk details with US
• Welcome US firms to invest in China, will firmly protect their legal rights
• China’s unreliable entity list does not target any specific country
• Still going through procedure on introducing unreliable entity list
• Hopes US meets halfway and finds a win-win solution in a fair and respectable way
• Preparing for making progress in trade talks in October

So, these comments keep the positive tones of recent weeks, although they don’t offer much news because it’s just hopes and expectations. As a result they haven’t affected the sentiment in financial markets this morning, which continues to be negative, with risk assets declining.