US tariff delay draws cautious welcome, boosts shares

China's stock market surged Monday after President Donald Trump's decision to postpone a tariff hike on Chinese imports and state media expressed optimism a fight over Beijing's technology ambitions can be resolved.

Other financial markets in Europe and Asia recorded more modest gains following Trump's announcement the Washington talks made "substantial progress" toward ending the tariff fight.

The conflict has threatened to disrupt global trade and drag on weakening economic growth.

Washington accuses Beijing of stealing or pressuring foreign companies to hand over technology. The Trump administration wants China to roll back plans for government-led creation of global leaders in robotics and other technology. Its trading partners say violate Beijing's free-trade obligations and some American officials worry they might erode U.S. industrial leadership.

The weekend talks made progress on technology transfer, protection of intellectual property rights and non-tariff barriers to market access, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. It cautioned there are "still some differences that need more time to be ironed out." On Twitter, Trump said negotiators also made progress on U.S. agricultural sales to China.

Neither government gave more details but both expressed optimism.

Trump said he would postpone a March 1 deadline for increasing 10 percent punitive duties on $200 billion of Chinese imports to 25 percent but he set no new date.

Trump said many disputes will take more time to resolve but he hopes to "put these more challenging issues into a longer-term negotiating framework." He said if progress is made, he will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Florida resort to finalize an agreement.

"If all works well, we're going to have some very big news over the next week or two," Trump told American governors at a White House ball. He added, "we still have a little ways to go." The talks "sent a positive signal to the world" and "laid the foundation for the final agreement," the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily said.

"China solemnly shows it is willing to adopt a cooperative approach to resolve economic and trade frictions," the newspaper said.

The Shanghai Composite index rose 5.6 percent to an eight-month high. Trump's decision was a "positive signal," said the vice president of the U.S.-China Business Council, Jake Parker.

The decision "seems to indicate that there's enough forward momentum that they believe they don't need to raise tariffs now," Parker said.

Another ruling party newspaper, the Global Times, said the talks "solved most of the problems of both sides" and negotiators were "already preparing the text of an agreement." However, it cautioned they "still need to continue to make efforts."