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UK.

Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Monday, May 12th, and this is your FT News briefing.

The U.S. is optimistic about a trade deal with China, and European stocks are outshining their American peers.

Plus, Disney seems to be doubling down on theme parks.

This is like building a battleship for the Navy or a new space shuttle for NASA.

So it's a big moment and it's a big decision for Disney.

I'm Kasha Bersalian and here's the news you need to start your day.

Thank you. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said that the U.S. had made a lot of progress with Chinese officials during trade talks in Geneva over the weekend.

And China's vice premier said the meetings were constructive.

It's the first sign that Washington and Beijing might be dialing down tensions. The U.S.

has slapped 145 percent tariffs on Chinese goods. And China has responded with a levy of 125%.

That's really slowed down trade between the world's two biggest economies.

In a statement, Besson said that more details would be announced this morning.

Germany's Dax Index reached a record high on Friday. It's the first major European benchmark to recover from the losses after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened tariffs. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 is still down more than 7% from its peak. Which makes me wonder, are investors starting to prefer Europe over the US?

Here to talk to me about it is the FD's senior markets correspondent, Ian Smith.

Hey, Ian.

Hi, yeah.

...