* U.S. stocks slip about 4%, halting Tuesday's rally
* BoE announces surprise 50 bps cut to tackle coronavirus
shock
* Oil falls after Saudi Aramco (SE:2222) announces more production
* Graphic: World FX rates in 2020 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, March 11 (Reuters) - The dollar weakened and
global equities markets slid again on Wednesday, with Wall
Street sharply lower, as the previous day's high hopes of
government stimulus to tackle the coronavirus soured on the hard
reality of still little action.
The strong stock rally on Tuesday petered out in Europe,
even after the Bank of England joined other central banks in
cutting interest rates, as investors pondered how much monetary
and fiscal stimulus can dampen the epidemic's economic toll.
Britain announced a $39 billion war chest to soften the
impact of the coronavirus after the BofE cut rates by half a
percentage point. Italy, the hardest hit country outside of
China, said it might further tighten already draconian curbs.
President Donald Trump met with fellow Republicans in the
U.S. Senate on Tuesday to discuss fiscal stimulus, though
concrete measures have not been announced.
The escalating outbreak also has the Federal Reserve trying
to judge its potential economic impact in the absence of
reliable data on how fast the flu-like illness will spread.
Economic stimulus will take time, while in the interim the
virus spreads and more businesses suspend financial guidance,
said Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel in
Charlottesville, Virginia.
"You got uncertainty ramped up again this morning and it
shows no sign of abating," Tuz said. "The volatility due to the
virus and the response to the virus is at very severe levels. I
don't see it really calming down until our arms are around the
number of people who are affected in the U.S.," he said.
As of Tuesday's close, the recent rout had erased $8.1
trillion in value from global stock markets.
MSCI's U.S. centric gauge of stocks across the globe
.MIWD00000PUS shed 3.17% while the pan-European STOXX 600
index .STOXX lost 0.71%.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell
1,171.23 points, or 4.68%, to 23,846.93. The S&P 500 .SPX lost
120.08 points, or 4.17%, to 2,762.15 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC dropped 322.70 points, or 3.87%, to 8,021.55.
The dollar resumed its decline against the safe-haven
Japanese yen and Swiss franc and gold rebounded, but was well
off the $1,700 level it briefly hit Monday.
Sterling initially fell as much as 0.4% against the dollar
and 1.2% against the euro after the BoE cut its benchmark rate
by 50 basis points, to 0.25%. The Japanese yen strengthened 0.86% versus the greenback at
104.77 per dollar.
After a decade of extraordinary monetary policy, investors
say the impact of easier policy has limits and increased
government spending must be the dominant policy response to the
economic consequences of the outbreak.
A key gauge of long-term euro zone inflation expectations
dropped to another record low, in what analysts said suggested
investors were positioning for deflation risks. Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yields US10T=RR rose 5
basis points to yield 0.804%, more than double Monday's record
low yield of 0.3180%.0.7965
German government bond yields rose DE10YT=RR after the BoE
cut supported sentiment, while Italian yields IT10YT=RR --
which had shot up on worries the country with Europe's worst
outbreak of the virus is sliding into a recession -- tumbled as
much as 20 basis points as bets grew on ECB stimulus.
Oil prices fell after Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates announced plans to boost production capacity and OPEC
and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) slashed oil
demand forecasts because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Brent crude LCOc1 was down $1.03 to $36.19 a barrel, while
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 was off 83 cents
to $33.53.
Markets hit hard by coronavirus worries https://tmsnrt.rs/3cm1zTi
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