By Ben St. Clair

European stocks rose Thursday after a downbeat session in Asia as metals prices gained and the U.S. and China reached a modest breakthrough on trade.

The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.1% in early trading, led higher by the basic-resources and technology sectors.

Shares in mining giants BHP Billiton, Glencore and Rio Tinto rebounded and were each up over 1% as metals prices partially bounced back from Wednesday's rout. Copper gained 0.9% and zinc and lead were each up over 3% on the London Metal Exchange.

Asian stocks fell further Thursday, with the Shanghai Composite Index down 0.7% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.1% lower. Japan's Nikkei edged slightly lower.

The moves came as trade tensions between the U.S. and China appeared to ease slightly after the two countries said they would hold lower-level talks later in August. The discussions would be the first since May when talks fell through and both countries imposed tariffs on the other's goods in the following weeks.

Declines in technology companies Tencent and Samsung helped drive the MSCI Emerging Markets Index near bear market territory, typically defined as a 20% drop from a recent peak.

Shares in Tencent were down 3.8% a day after the company posted a decline in profit and unexpectedly weak quarterly sales. Samsung stock fell 2%. The two companies make up roughly 8.6% of the MSCI index.

A stronger dollar and trade tensions have put pressure on developing economies in recent months, and Turkey's currency crisis has added to the strain as investors remained wary of possible contagion.

Still, the lira posted gains for its third straight day Thursday. The Turkish currency rose 2.9% in morning European trading, with one dollar buying 5.7911 lira. In a show of support on Wednesday, Qatar said it would inject $15 billion into Turkey with a package that includes direct investments and deposits.

Elsewhere, yields on 10-year U.S. Treasurys rose to 2.880% from 2.852% Wednesday. Yields and prices move in opposite directions.

The WSJ Dollar Index, which measures the U.S. currency against a basket of 16 others, dropped 0.2%.

In commodities, Brent crude was up 0.3% to $71.01 a barrel, and gold dropped 0.2% to $1,182.50 an ounce.

Mike Bird contributed to this article.

Write to Ben St. Clair at ben.stclair@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 16, 2018 04:15 ET (08:15 GMT)

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