GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian shares push higher on improving coronavirus outlook

By Imani Moise
Feb 3 (Reuters) - Asian markets moved higher during early
trading as governments around the world looked poised to boost
spending to help economies recover from the coronavirus and
vaccine roll-out programs accelerated.
E-mini futures for the S&P 500 EScv1 rose 0.34%.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 rose 0.3% in early trade and
Australian S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO added 0.8%. Hong Kong's
Hang Seng futures HSIc1 lost 0.20%.
Wall Street rallied on Tuesday on renewed hopes for U.S.
President Joe Biden' proposed $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid bill as
the Senate voted to start a process that would allow Democrats
to pass Biden's package without Republican support.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 475.57 points,
or 1.57%, to 30,687.48, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 52.45 points,
or 1.39%, to 3,826.31 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
209.38 points, or 1.56%, to 13,612.78.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS
gained 0.07%.
The increased likelihood of Biden's plan being passed also
sent treasury yields higher on supply concerns.
The benchmark 10-year yield US10YT=RR was last up 2.8
basis points at 1.1048%.
Progress is also starting to pick up on the roll-out of
vaccines in many countries.
"All the ingredients for a rapid recovery from Q2 onwards
are getting sweetly baked into the reopening party cake," said
Stephen Innes, Chief Global Markets Strategist at AxiCorp
Financial Services.
Russian authorities said they will be able to vaccinate
about 700 million people this year with the Sputnik V
coronavirus vaccine. Nations including India and Mexico are in
talks to ink emergency deals to start administering the vaccine.
In the United States, the Biden administration said it will
increase the weekly supply of shots nationwide and start
shipping coronavirus vaccines directly to retail pharmacies in
addition to ongoing deliveries to states.
The bullish sentiment, which was also bolstered by
higher-than-expected earnings by tech giants Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc
GOOG.O and Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , overshadowed the retail
trading frenzy that has preoccupied markets for the past week.
The party for the Reddit-inspired trading frenzy that pushed
GameStop's stock up five-fold in five days last week appeared
over as its shares plunged 60% in heavy trade to close at
$90.00, less than one-fifth of an all-time peak on Friday.
"Wallstreetbets is hitting the point of diminishing value,"
Innes said. "Retail traders will still be a force to be reckoned
with, but we are perhaps past the peak YOLO world with the cat
out of the bag."
Silver slid more than 8% on Tuesday, undoing the retail
trader-driven rally to a near eight-year peak in the previous
session as small investors retreated.
Spot gold XAU= fell 1.4% to $1,835.11 per ounce. U.S. gold
futures GCv1 settled down 1.6% at $1,833.40.
Oil prices continued their upswing as producers limited
supply in the face of increased fuel demand from a bad winter
storm in the Northeast US.
Brent crude LCOc1 and U.S. oil CLc1 each settled about
2% higher.
The dollar index =USD rose 0.096%, with the euro EUR=
unchanged at $1.2042.

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