(Bloomberg) -- European shares gained in early trading on Friday, with focus once again on China-U.S. trade talks, as well as the ongoing earnings season.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.3 percent. The autos sector was among top gainers after Morgan Stanley upgraded the region’s industry to attractive. Financial services was full of news, with earnings from Deutsche Bank AG and Denmark’s Danske Bank A/S, amid new regulatory scrutiny. Miners, steelmakers, autos and other trade sensitive sectors were closely watched after China promised to “substantially” expand purchases of U.S. goods after the latest round of trade talks.

“‘Dead cat bounce’ or ‘every correction is a buying opportunity’? That is what all investors are trying to guess, as the bounce from Christmas lows has been very strong,” said Lippo Suominen, chief strategist at Finnish asset manager FIM.

“Earnings season has been good enough to remove the near-term worries of earnings recession,” said Suominen. “However, now quite a bit of hopes have been priced in and investor sentiment has risen. Thus going forward we are again more vulnerable to the news flow, which definitely will not be only positive.”

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