By Will Horner 

--U.S. stock futures climb as Trump agrees to meet Chinese officials

--Oil prices jump after an Iranian tanker is damaged in an alleged possible missile attack

--British pound and U.K. banks extend gains on Brexit hopes

U.S. stock futures and global equity markets rose Friday amid hopes of progress in U.S.-China trade negotiations, with a meeting scheduled between Chinese officials and President Trump.

Futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.9%, while the pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 1.7%. Asian indexes also climbed, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng advancing 2.3% and the Shanghai Composite gaining 0.9%.

Mr. Trump offered an upbeat assessment of the talks and said he would meet with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Friday. Markets are hoping that Beijing's emissaries are ready to offer compromises aimed at getting Mr. Trump to hold off on tariff increases set to take effect next week and in December.

Traders are pleased that talks have continued into a second day, said David Madden, an analyst at CMC Markets U.K.

"Actions speak louder than words," Mr. Madden said. "At the end of the day, if the two sides were not interested in having some progress, they wouldn't even be meeting today."

Crude oil prices gained after an Iranian tanker near the Saudi Arabian coast suffered damage Friday in what the ship's owner suggested may have been a missile attack. Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, jumped 1.6% to $60.02 a barrel. The alleged missile strike couldn't be independently verified and Iran's oil ministry later said there was no fire.

Investors worried that the incident could further crimp supply after an assault on Saudi oil facilities last month, said Giovanni Staunovo, a commodities analyst at UBS.

"In a global context, spare capacity is running very low. This kind of incident just increases the risk that spare capacity could disappear again and that for me is a reason to hold a risk premium in oil prices," he said.

The British pound added 1.6% against the dollar, having posted its largest one-day jump since March on Thursday following signs of progress in the Brexit talks between the U.K. and Ireland. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar unexpectedly said they saw a chance of a Brexit deal.

"Clearly there seems to have been some movement behind the scenes stemming from the meeting yesterday. We haven't heard anything formal today yet but feelings are high that a deal could be reached," he said.

The yield on the 10-year U.K. gilt continued to climb, rising to 0.686% from 0.462% Wednesday. The U.K.'s FTSE 250 index jumped 2.6%. Shares of British lenders soared, with Royal Bank of Scotland Group and Lloyds Banking Group both climbing more than 10%.

In U.S. premarket trading, shares in Fastenal surged 9% after the company, which makes industrial tools and supplies, reported third-quarter profit and sales that rose above expectations.

Shares in Publicis Groupe plunged 14% in Paris on Friday after the advertising giant lowered its guidance for the second time in a year. Luxury apparel maker Hugo Boss tumbled 13% after the German company cut its revenue and earnings guidance for the year.

Later Friday, the University of Michigan will release a U.S. consumer sentiment measure that is likely to signal dimming expectations about the economic outlook. Investors will be watching the data to see if consumers are nervous enough to potentially curtail spending in the crucial months ahead.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 11, 2019 08:19 ET (12:19 GMT)