* U.S. stock futures gain ahead of U.S. jobs data
* FTSE hits nine-month high, sterling eyes one-year high
* Ex-Japan Asia shares hit record high
By Carolyn Cohn
LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Growing prospects for a U.S.
economic stimulus package and the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines
boosted demand for riskier assets on Friday, taking the
safe-haven dollar to a 2-1/2-year low versus the euro and world
shares towards record highs.
A bipartisan, $908 billion coronavirus aid plan gained
momentum in the U.S. Congress on Thursday as conservative
lawmakers expressed their support. The U.S. Federal Reserve is also expected to tweak guidance
on its asset-purchase scheme later this month. The European
Central Bank looks certain to increase its bond buying next
week.
"We expect major central banks to remain very accommodative
over the coming quarters as output remains below its pre-crisis
level - and well below its pre-crisis trend - and inflation
remains subdued," Elia Lattuga, co-head of strategy research at
Unicredit, said in a note.
Britain hopes that millions of doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech
COVID-19 vaccine will be delivered by the end of the year but
the total will depend on how quickly it can be manufactured,
business minister Alok Sharma said. Britain approved Pfizer Inc's PFE.N COVID-19 vaccine on
Wednesday, jumping ahead of the rest of the world in the race to
begin the mass inoculation programme.
MSCI's world share index .MIWD00000PUS ticked up 0.17% to
within a whisker of the previous day's record high. It is set
for a fifth straight week of gains, which have seen it surge
15%.
S&P500 futures ESc1 rose 0.3% ahead of U.S. non-farm
payrolls data at 1330 GMT, forecast to show a rise of 469,000 in
November, according to a Reuters poll.
The broadly upbeat mood saw the U.S. dollar lose ground to
other major currencies.
"One of the elements of the better news we are getting, for
instance the vaccine, is to increase the attraction of risky
assets and that reduces the appetite for the U.S. dollar," said
Eric Brard, head of fixed income at asset manager Amundi.
The euro EUR= hit its highest since April 2018 against the
dollar and was last at $1.2172, a weekly gain of more than 1.5%.
The dollar was down 0.13% against a basket of currencies =USD ,
near its lowest since May 2018.
Britain's FTSE 100 index .FTSE reached nine-month highs
and euro zone stocks .STOXX were close to similar levels.
German government bond yields DE10YT=RR - which move
inversely to price - ticked down to -0.557%.
German industrial orders rose more than expected on the
month in October, data showed on Friday, raising hopes the
manufacturing sector in Europe's biggest economy started the
fourth quarter on a solid footing during a second wave of the
COVID-19 pandemic. Asian shares hit a record high overnight. MSCI's broadest
index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose
0.82%, surpassing its Nov. 25 high, led by gains in the tech
sector .MIAPJIT00PUS . Japan's Nikkei .N225 dipped 0.22% on
profit-taking.
BREXIT DEAL?
The pound rose 0.2% to $1.3475 GBP=D3 , a shade below
recent one-year highs, with traders hoping for a trade deal
between the European Union and Britain.
Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator, said it was an
important day in the talks as he left his hotel in London, while
his planned update for national envoys to the bloc was cancelled
due to "intensive negotiations", an EU spokesman said.
A negotiated deal was "imminent" and expected before the end
of the weekend, barring a last-minute breakdown in talks, an
official with the bloc told Reuters. But a British minister said
the talks were in a difficult phase.
Emerging markets continued their gains. The Mexican peso,
Brazilian real, Turkish lira, South African rand, Russian rouble
and Polish zloty have all jumped 7% to 11% over the past month,
adding to 5%-12% leaps in China, Taiwan and Korea's currencies
since June.
Oil prices got an additional lift after OPEC and Russia
agreed to reduce their deep oil output cuts from January by
500,000 barrels per day. They failed to find a compromise on a
broader and longer-term policy. The increase means the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries and Russia, a group known as OPEC+, would
move to cut production by 7.2 million barrels per day, or 7% of
global demand from January, compared with current cuts of 7.7
million barrels per day.
Brent crude rose as high as $49.92 per barrel LCOc1 , its
highest price since early March, and last stood at $49.36, up
1.3%.
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World FX rates in 2020 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
2020 asset performance http://tmsnrt.rs/2yaDPgn
Global fund flows into equity sectors https://tmsnrt.rs/2IdlRUU
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