Daily summary: A green start to the new trading week 📈

- Wall Street ended Monday's session in very good spirits. The US100, US500, and US2000 indices are currently up 1.43%, 1.14%, and 1.87%, respectively. The improvement in sentiment is primarily due to the relative warming of communications between the US and China. 

- Trump said during a press conference: “I think China will make a deal with us,” suggesting that he sees a real chance for an agreement in the near future. 

- President Trump said that after the meetings in South Korea, he expects to conclude a “great deal” with China, including Beijing's commitments to purchase US soybeans so as not to punish American farmers. He warned that if China refused to cooperate, “they would be in serious trouble,” and announced the threat of introducing aircraft export controls and restrictions on rare earths as leverage in the negotiations. Trump added that he had been invited to visit China “early next year” and emphasized his good relationship with President Xi.

- What's more, there have been signs from the White House that the federal government shutdown may end soon, perhaps even this week - source: Hassett

- The Forex market is dominated today by Antipodean currencies. The British pound and the euro are performing the worst.

- European indices are gaining in the first session of the new week. Positive sentiment persists thanks to optimism surrounding France's budget and strong results from defensive companies. French Prime Minister Lecornu survived two votes of confidence in the government. However, gains on the French FRA40 index were then wiped out by a significant sell-off in BNP Paribas. 

BNP Paribas (BNP.FR) shares fell 8% after reports that the French bank had lost a court case that could result in BNP paying billions of dollars in compensation. A US jury ruled that the bank had helped the Sudanese government commit genocide by providing financial services that violated US sanctions. BNP considered the verdict to be wrong and announced that it would appeal.

- Amazon (AMZN.US) shares are rebounding after Amazon Web Services (AWS) experienced a major global outage this morning that caused interruptions to many popular internet platforms.

- On Monday, US natural gas futures (NATGAS) rose 12%, with the November contract reaching $3.34/mmBtu, its highest level in nearly two weeks and the largest daily increase since the end of September. The increase was driven by forecasts of colder weather, which caused a surge in demand for heating, pushing the two-week heating degree-hour forecast up from 118 to 164.

- After Friday's slump, which brought gold prices down by almost 2% from record highs of $4,378 per ounce, the market is regaining its balance in Monday trading. The spot price is once again hovering around $4,320, supported by expectations of further interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and continued demand for safe-haven assets.