* Equity rally runs out of puff; MSCI AxJ -0.07%
* AUD backs off multi-week high, gold and bonds up
* Asian stock markets: https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
By Tom Westbrook and Chris Prentice
WASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) - Asian stocks struggled to
extend the week's rally on Wednesday and gold and bonds firmed
as a sceptical press report dented some hopes for a COVID-19
vaccine and concerns about bumps in the global recovery from the
pandemic returned.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS was flat. The risk-sensitive Australian dollar
retreated from an overnight two-month high and safe-haven demand
drove U.S. Treasury yields back under 0.7%. FRX/ US/
The moves follow a downbeat end to the day on Wall Street,
after a report from medical news website STAT cast doubt over
positive early results from a Moderna Inc MRNA.O COVID-19
vaccine trial. The report said the results, which had rallied
global stocks this week, lacked detail. Chinese stocks began the day a little lower .SSEC and Hong
Kong's Hang Seng .HSI slipped 0.1%. Australia's benchmark
.AXJO was flat while a soft yen helped the Nikkei .N225 0.7%
higher. .T
"This is probably more a stabilisation than anything else,
because markets have rallied hard on opening up and the
potential for a V-shaped recovery," said Jun Bei Liu, a
portfolio manager at Australia's Tribeca Investment Partners.
"The market is a little bit directionless...from here on, it
certainly feels like we will see a lot more poor economic data,"
she said, with investors likely to take their strongest cues
from company outlook commentaries and confidence surveys.
Two thirds of 223 fund managers surveyed by Bank of America
reckon recent gains are a bear-market rally.
S&P 500 futures ESc1 were last up 0.5% after wobbling
around flat through the morning. Oil was steady and benchmark
10-year yields on U.S. Treasuries US10YT=RR dipped 1.5 basis
points to 0.6964%. Yields fall when prices rise.
Gold XAU= rose slightly to $1,750.19 per ounce. GOL/
WOBBLY RECOVERY
Doubts about the outlook held back commodity prices from
further gains, as more bad news poured forth.
Japanese business confidence slumped to a decade low as the
economy entered recession while Australian retail sales suffered
their steepest ever dive in April. British jobless claims are at
their highest in 20 years. And the U.S. economy won't recover its lost ground until
sometime after next year, the non-partisan Congressional Budget
Office said on Tuesday. Brent crude futures LCOc1 steadied at $34.73 per barrel,
having rallied nearly 7% this week, and U.S. crude CLc1 held
at $31.97 a barrel. O/R
"While countries have started to relax restrictions on
economic and social activities, economies will not return to
where things were before the outbreak," said strategist at
Singapore's DBS bank in a note.
"Geopolitical tensions, especially between the U.S. and
China, have also returned and are likely to intensify into the
U.S. elections in November."
In currency markets the euro EUR= remained supported in
the afterglow of a Franco-German proposal for a common relief
fund - a possible way through tensions between European Union
members. It inched up to $1.0938.
Other majors steadied, while the Aussie AUD=D3 and kiwi
NZD=D3 battled, mostly without success, to break out of the
ranges that have held them for months. AUD/
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(Editing by Sam Holmes)