And finally, Wall Street has racked up its fourth day of gains in a row.

Investors shrugged off the news that president Trump had walked out of a meeting with congressional leaders over the shutdown.....

....clinging instead to hopes that the US and China are making headway in their trade talks.

The S&P 500 gained 0.4% to around 2,585. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 91 points higher (also +0.4%) to 23,878, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.9%.

Goodnight! GW

Back in New York, shares are holding onto their earlier gains - after it emerged that some US central bankers argued against last month’s interest rate hike.

The minutes of the Federal Reserve’s December meeting, released this afternoon, showed that a few officials pushed for a pause.

They argued that weak inflation readings allowed the central bank “some latitude to wait and see” how economic conditions developed, given financial market tensions and worries over the global economic outlook.

Such dovish inclinations may indicate the Fed will be reluctant to raise interest rates in 2019 (although it all depends on the data!).

Still, it’s enough to keep the Dow 149 points higher in late trading at 23,937, a rise of around 0.6%.

The early rally in New York is slightly fizzling out as traders digest the US trade representative’s statement on the China trade talks:

In London, the FTSE 100 is still up 50 point at 6910, a five-week high.

Here’s the full statement from the US Trade Representative on this week’s talks with China (it’s also online here):

On January 7-9, an official delegation from the United States led by Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish held meetings in Beijing with Chinese officials to discuss ways to achieve fairness, reciprocity, and balance in trade relations between our two countries. The officials also discussed the need for any agreement to provide for complete implementation subject to ongoing verification and effective enforcement.

The meetings were held as part of the agreement reached by President Donald J. Trump and President Xi Jinping in Buenos Aires to engage in 90 days of negotiations with a view to achieving needed structural changes in China with respect to forced technology transfer, intellectual property protection, non-tariff barriers, cyber intrusions and cyber theft of trade secrets for commercial purposes, services, and agriculture. The talks also focused on China’s pledge to purchase a substantial amount of agricultural, energy, manufactured goods, and other products and services from the United States.

The United States officials conveyed President Trump’s commitment to addressing our persistent trade deficit and to resolving structural issues in order to improve trade between our countries.

The delegation will now report back to receive guidance on the next steps.

More snap reaction:

The FTSE 100’s rally this week will bring welcome relief to investors, who suffered as the blue-chip index tumbled by 12% last year.

And as this chart shows, the Footsie is still roughly its value a decade ago, after it was driven down to just 3,500 points after the financial crisis.

Ding ding. Wall Street is rallying in early trading, sending the Dow Jones industrial average up by over 0.5% (130 points) to 23917.

A salient point:

With European indices still up over 1% today, the markets are showing confidence that China and the US are making progress in their trade dispute.

Karen Ward, chief market strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, has made timely point -- the US and China are a long way apart, and it will take a major breakthrough to end their dispute.

She told CNBC:

I think (the deal) would have to be extremely far-reaching for the markets to breath an enormous sigh of relief,”

“I don’t think, unfortunately, that (the trade war) is something that will disappear from our horizon for the full year>”

After three days of gains, Wall Street is expected to rise further when trading begins in under 90 minutes.

Entrepreneur Elon Musk has been doing his bit for US-China relations this week.

Musk’s electric car maker, Tesla, broke ground on a new factory at Shanghai this week - its first one outside the States.

Beijing’s top economic official, Premier Li Keqiang, met Musk in the Great Hall of the People, and wished him the best of luck in China:

“We hope you can get a firm foothold and expand the market.

We hope your company can become an in-depth participant in China’s opening and a promoter of the stability of Chinese-U.S. relations.”

An end to the US-China trade war can’t some soon enough for some American farmers.

Exports of soybeans slumped last autumn after Beijing imposed tariffs on imported US goods. That hurt America’s agriculture sector badly, as soybean prices fell to 10-year lows.

Washington responded to farmers’ suffering by launching the Market Facilitation Program, a multi-billion dollar subsidy programme. But now there’s a new problem – the ongoing US shutdown means payments aren’t being made!

Heads-up: China and the US will both release statements about this week’s trade talks on Thursday, according to Hu Xijin, editor of Global Times.

That’s another indication that some progress has been achieved this week (but probably not a final deal, if Donald Trump is planning talks in Davos).

Hu has also heard that negotiations were “pleasant and candid”.

After three hours of trading, the FTSE 100 is sitting comfortably higher at 6,962 points, up 66 points or almost 1%.

That’s its highest level since 5th December 2018, clawing back the heavy losses suffered late last yet (when the Footsie hit a 28-month low of 6,536).

Virtually every sector is up, led by tech firms and consumer-focused companies.

Housebuilders continue to rally too, following Taylor Wimpey’s upbeat statement to the City (see 9.30am)

The upbeat noises from Beijing about progress at the US-China trade talks continues to boost risk appetite.

Vincent-Freědeěric Mivelaz of Swissquote Bank says further progress could come at the World Economic Forum later this month:

Equities are rallying on optimism that the US-China trade dispute might be resolved. A scheduled two days of negotiation was extended by a third day, suggesting things are going well. The arrival of US officials from energy, agriculture and treasury departments is a good sign that discussions are becoming more explicit on topics such as intellectual property and trade deficit.

The next step will come at the 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos (22 January), where US President Donald Trump and China Vice-President Wang Qishan will meet.

Some good news: unemployment in the euro area has hit a new 10-year low.

The jobless rate dipped to 7.9% in November, down from 8.0% in October 2018 and from 8.7% in November 2017.

That still leaves just over 13m people out of work in the euro area, and almost 16.5m in the wider EU (where unemployment is its lowest since Eurostat started counting in 2000).

Eurostat says:

Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates in November 2018 were recorded in Czechia (1.9%), Germany (3.3%) and the Netherlands (3.5%). The highest unemployment rates were observed in Greece (18.6% in September 2018) and Spain (14.7%).

Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in all Member States except Estonia where it remained stable. The largest decreases were registered in Croatia (from 10.0% to 7.8%), Greece (from 20.8% to 18.6% between September 2017 and September 2018) and Spain (from 16.5% to 14.7%).

UK baker chain Greggs is among the top risers in London, up 7.5%, after posting sparkling results.

Fresh from launching a vegan sausage roll to a (mostly) grateful nation, Greggs has hikes its pre-tax profit forecasts from £86m to £88m after a strong end to trading last year.

My colleague Angela Monaghan explains how bumper sales of festive bake and mince pies boosted sales:

Greggs has prided itself on adapting products to suit changing consumer tastes, and said its latest creation, the £1 vegan sausage roll, was proving popular with “a broad range of customers”.

The vegan sausage roll hit Greggs’ shelves last week, coinciding with the beginning of Veganuary, a growing movement that encourages people to embrace plant-based diets during January. It is on sale in 950 of Greggs’s 1,950 UK shops.

Greggs has increased sales and profits despite a tough backdrop for high street retailers struggling with rising business costs, a switch to online spending and faltering consumer confidence as Brexit looms.

More here:

Plus a bonus poem:

Markets are doing their best to climb out of the hole they tumbled into late last year, says Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

The blue chip FTSE 100 index is up 2.6% year-to-date which sends hope to investors that market weakness seen in the second half of 2018 may not necessarily turn into a sustained downward trend.

“Housebuilders, tobacco, miners, engineers and retailers all look strong on the London market on Wednesday. The rest of Europe and Asia also pushed ahead, following similar strength on the US market last night.

“Hopes of progress with US-China trade talks are certainly giving markets support, so too a lack of major shocks among corporate trading updates in general.

UK housebuilder Taylor Wimpey is the top riser on the FTSE 100 this morning, up over 5%.

It reassured the City this morning that business looks solid, saying:

“We continue to see solid forward sales indicators and start the year with a very strong order book.

Analysts have warned that housebuilders would suffer badly from a no-deal Brexit, which could crush consumer confidence, hit growth and potentially force interest rates up to protect the pound.

Shares in European car makers are jumping, with Daimler up 3%, Volkswagen, up 2.75% and BMW up 2%.

They’ve all suffered from recent US-China tensions; last month, China reportedly began cutting tariffs on American-built cars.

Today’s rally has driven the FTSE 100 to a four-week high, clawing back December’s losses.

Trade deal hopes have sent European stocks higher in early trading.

In London, the FTSE 100 index of top blue-chip shares is up 45 points (0.7%), and there are similar gains in Paris and Frankfurt.

European traders are picking up the baton from their Asia-Pacific colleagues:

Mike van Dulken of Accendo Markets says the City is cheered by “hopes of a resolution to the [US-China trade] dispute before the end of a 90 day truce at the end of February”.