LONDON—Global stock markets marched on towards new peaks on Tuesday as U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held over three hours of virtual talk, helping to nudge China’s yuan to a five-month high and pulling the dollar lower. The closely watched conversation between the leaders of the world’s biggest economies appeared to yield no immediate outcome but is widely seen as a joint effort to improve icy relations and avoid direct confrontation. “Markets are trading north courtesy of the Biden-Xi virtual summit which seems to have somewhat defused U.S.-China tensions,” said Stephane Ekolo, global equity strategist at Tradition in London. “Market participants view such a summit as a positive effort to stabilise a tense relationship, fuelling risk-on mode appetite,” he added. The pan-European STOXX 600, German blue chips, and the Paris CAC 40 benchmark all opened to new record highs, rising between 0.2 and 0.4 percent. Earlier, …