GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia shares set to follow Wall Street's rally

* Asian stock markets: https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4

By Chris Prentice
WASHINGTON, April 8 (Reuters) - Asian shares were poised to
track Wall Street's gains on Thursday on hopes the coronavirus
pandemic is nearing a peak and that governments would roll out
more stimulus measures.
Rising U.S. stocks on Wednesday had lifted the MSCI's index
of global equities .MIWD00000PUS more than 2% despite pressure
on European shares after euro zone finance ministers failed to
agree on more support for their coronavirus-hit economies.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he would like to reopen the
U.S. economy with a "big bang" but that the death toll from the
coronavirus first needs to be on the down slope. On Thursday, Hong Kong futures HSIc1 rose and Australian
shares were set to open higher. Nikkei futures NKc1 rose and
were trading above the Nikkei 225 index's .N225 previous
close.
Oil prices LCOc1 surged in early trade ahead of a crucial
meeting of oil-producing countries. Wall Street has rallied on Trump's optimism though recent
U.S. data is only now beginning to reflect the damage to
businesses and the massive job losses to come.
In a sign of the pandemic's likely impact, McDonald's Corp
MCD.N global comparable sales tumbled 22.2% in March.
Starbucks Corp SBUX.O on Wednesday forecast a 47% drop in
second-quarter earnings and warned that the financial hit from
the coronavirus pandemic would extend into the end of the fiscal
2020. The pandemic is still infecting and killing large numbers of
people across Europe and there is still no sign that the peak of
the region's outbreak has been reached, the EU's disease
monitoring agency said. The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 779.71 points,
or 3.44%, to 23,433.57, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 90.57 points,
or 3.41%, to 2,749.98 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
203.64 points, or 2.58%, to 8,090.90.
The Trump administration this week asked lawmakers for an
additional $250 billion in emergency economic aid for small U.S.
businesses reeling from the impact of the outbreak. But Congressional efforts were stalling as Democrats said
they would only back a $250-billion measure that was coupled
with similar amounts of aid for hospitals and local
governments. The novel coronavirus has infected more than 1.4 million
people and killed over 83,000 globally, the latest figures
compiled by Reuters show.
Hospitalizations for COVID-19, the respiratory disease
caused by the new coronavirus, seemed to be levelling off in New
York state, the U.S. epicenter for the disease, even as U.S.
deaths topped 14,600, the second highest reported number in the
world after Italy. Wuhan, the Chinese city where the new coronavirus emerged,
ended its more-than two-month lockdown on Wednesday.
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