GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia shares jump but pandemic hangs heavy over outlook

* Asian stock markets: https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
* MSCI ex-Japan starts higher on Tuesday, Nikkei rises too
* Signs of peaking in coronavirus outbreak helping sentiment
* Confidence tempered by fears of global recession
* Investors eye Chinese trade data, corporate results

By Koh Gui Qing and Swati Pandey
NEW YORK/SYDNEY, April 14 (Reuters) - Asian stocks bounced
on Tuesday on hopes the coronavirus outbreak may be peaking,
though sentiment was cautious ahead of Chinese trade data and
corporate earnings as investors worried about a deep global
recession.
Chinese shares started firm with the blue-chip index
.CSI300 up 0.7%. Australian shares .AXJO were up 0.6% while
South Korea's KOSPI index .KS11 and Japan's Nikkei .N225
each gained 1.4%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng .HSI rose 0.2%.
That left MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares
excluding Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS up 0.6%.
E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 ESc1 were modestly higher,
up 0.2%.
All eyes will be on China's trade data, which is expected to
show exports tumbling 14% in March from a year ago, as the
coronavirus shutters businesses around the world, crippling
demand and economic growth. Indeed, some analysts say any optimism over signs the
outbreak may be peaking in hard-hit cities is quickly being
offset by concerns that it may be a while before businesses
recover.
"Signs of the outbreak peaking - or at least slowing in some
regions - have started to turn the talk to when restrictions on
activity can be eased," analysts at JPMorgan said in a note.
"Short of the unlikely near-term event of a vaccine or
significant herd immunity, restarting economies ... may be
challenging," the analysts wrote.
Wall Street indexes ended mixed on Monday with the Dow and
S&P 500 falling while a 6.2% gain in Amazon shares helped the
Nasdaq end higher. In Asia, an expected trade slump in China will reinforce
views that the world is headed for a global recession this year,
despite an unprecedented burst of stimulus from policymakers in
the last two months to shore up growth.
Many analysts already expect China's economy, the world's
second-largest, to have contracted sharply in the March quarter
for the first time since at least 1992. China reports its
first-quarter gross domestic product data on April 17.
A weak report could see China boost monetary and fiscal
stimulus in a bid to reflate its economy.
"If we see greater signs that China is vigorously supporting
domestic economic activity, then the global industrial cycle
will recover with great alacrity in the second half of 2020,"
Montreal-based BCA Research wrote in a note on Monday.
"This will be positive for commodities, especially
industrial metals, but it will hurt the U.S. dollar and push
yields higher," it added.
"It would also arrest the stimulus-driven outperformance of
U.S. equities, due to their low exposure to industrials,
materials and financials."
Elsewhere, Britain's finance minister told colleagues the UK
economy could shrink by up to 30% this quarter due to the
coronavirus lockdown that has shuttered businesses. In another sign of worries about struggling global demand,
oil prices barely reacted to a global deal to cut output by a
record amount of nearly 10% of world supply. U.S.
crude CLc1 was up just 35 cents at $22.8, well under its
January peak of $63.27.
Brent crude LCOc1 gained 49 cents to $32.23 a barrel.
A skittish market helped gold prices XAU= cling to highs
not seen in more than seven years at $1,715.6 an ounce.
In the United States, which has recorded the highest number
of casualties from the virus in the world, President Donald
Trump said on Monday his administration was close to completing
a plan to re-open the U.S. economy. However, some state
governors have signalled that the decision on when to restart
businesses lay with them. The dollar continued to extend losses on the back of the
U.S. Federal Reserve's massive new lending programme. The
greenback was a touch weaker against the Japanese yen JPY= at
107.62. The euro EUR= was up a touch at $1.0923. The
risk-sensitive Australian dollar AUD=D3 jumped 0.5% to
$0.6415.

(Editing by Sam Holmes)