Shares in electric vehicle maker Tesla (TSLA) have climbed back to their highest point since February, amid investor optimism around US trade negotiations.
US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday morning that the US and China had agreed to lower their tariffs on each other's imports by 115% for 90 days, following negotiations in Switzerland over the weekend.
In a briefing in Geneva on Monday, Bessent told reporters that "both sides showed great respect" in their trade talks and that they "both have an interest in balanced trade".
Optimism around the latest developments have helped drive Tesla shares higher, with the stock up 9.6% over the past month. The stock was also boosted when CEO Elon Musk said following the release of the company's earnings that he would spend more time at Tesla and less time in Washington in his role in president Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Shares in Chinese tech giant Alibaba (9988.HK, BABA) rose 2.5% on Monday, amid upbeat sentiment in markets more broadly over US-China trade talks.
Alibaba is due to report its full-year results on Thursday, with investors keeping an eye on both its performance in e-commerce and its developments in artificial intelligence (AI).
Derren Nathan, head of equity analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said analysts had forecast revenue growth of 6.2% year-on-year for 2025.
He said Alibaba had "made notable progress in expanding its emerging AI and cloud infrastructure division last quarter, which has become central to its growth strategy."
"While the focus on AI and cloud is making the headlines, most revenue still comes from e-commerce, making Chinese consumer demand crucial," Nathan said.
"Ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties in China will remain important factors shaping investor confidence in the year ahead. The main question now is whether momentum can be sustained both in the next quarter and over the coming year."
US pharmaceuticals giant Eli Lilly (LLY) said on Sunday that its drug Zepbound had shown "superior weight loss" over Novo Nordisk's (NOVO-B.CO) treatment Wegovy.
Citing the results of a clinical trial, Eli Lilly said that participants treated with Zepbound achieved an average weight reduction of 20.2% compared to 13.7% with Wegovy at 72 weeks.
Louis J. Aronne, principal investigator on the SURMOUNT-5 clinical trial, said the results "demonstrated tirzepatide (Zepbound) led to greater weight reduction compared to semaglutide (Wegovy), providing further evidence to support tirzepatide as an effective option for obesity management."
A spokesperson for Novo Nordisk said: "This study compared the maximum tolerated dose of tirzepatide, a dual GIP and GLP-1 receptor agonist at 10mg and 15 mg, to semaglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist at 1.7mg and 2.4mg. 2.4mg is currently the highest approved dose for Wegovy (semaglutide injection)."
"In this study the amount of weight loss shown for Wegovy was lower than the amount showed in Novo Nordisk’s registry studies for the medicine, so we are not certain about the study’s methodology."
They added: "We believe that treating obesity is about more than just a number on a scale and Wegovy is the only GLP-1 obesity medication approved to prevent major cardiovascular events such as cardiovascular death, heart attack, and stroke and thereby potentially save and prolong lives."
Despite the report, shares in Eli Lilly were little changed in pre-market trading on Monday morning, while shares in Novo Nordisk were down 5.7%.
The drop in Novo Nordisk (NOVO-B.CO) shares, as well as other pharmaceuticals stocks, came after president Trump vowed to cut US drug prices.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Sunday, Trump said that he would be signing "one of the most consequential Executive Orders" in US history on Monday.
He said that US prescription drug and pharmaceutical prices would be reduced "almost immediately" by 30% to 80%.
Trump added: "They will rise throughout the World in order to equalize and, for the first time in many years, bring FAIRNESS TO AMERICA! I will be instituting a MOST FAVORED NATION’S POLICY whereby the United States will pay the same price as the Nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the World."
Shares in FTSE-listed drugmakers AstraZeneca (AZN.L) and GSK (GSK.L) were down 4% and 2.4% respectively on Monday morning, while Swiss company Roche (ROG.SW) fell nearly 3% and French company Sanofi (SAN.PA) dipped 1.6%.
Miner Glencore (GLEN.L) was the biggest riser on the FTSE 100 (^FTSE) on Monday morning, with its shares up 6.7%.
Neil Wilson, UK investor strategist at Saxo Markets, said: "This morning we got a bit of a surprise and a jolt higher as the de-escalation [between the US and China] seemed better than just about anyone could hope for.
"This is buying time for a more comprehensive deal – allows for time for the process and ‘mechanism’ in the words of Treasury secretary Bessent to take place.
"The FTSE was led higher as the China trade de-escalation story boosted sentiment about the global economy, Chinese economy, metals and miners."
Fellow FTSE-listed miners Anglo American (AAL.L) and Antofagasta (ANTO.L) jumped more than 6% on the news.
