GLOBAL MARKETS-Dollar surges, stocks fall as ECB fails to stop panic

* ECB launches $850 bln bond buying programme
* U.S. stock futures volatile, Asia markets bumpy
* Dollar surges as AUD, NZD collapse
* Asian stock markets : https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4

By Tom Westbrook
SINGAPORE, March 19 (Reuters) - The dollar surged, bonds
plunged and global markets struggled to find their footing on
Thursday as the European Central Bank's latest promise of
stimulus provided only brief solace while the world struggles to
contain the coronavirus pandemic.
U.S. stock futures EScv1 fell 2%. The Australian dollar
was crushed, falling 3.3% to a more than 17-year low, and Asian
markets gave up initial gains made after the ECB had announced a
bond-buying programme.
By midmorning, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares
outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS had fallen 4% to an almost
four-year low. Australia's benchmark erased an early 3% rise to
trade 2% in the red.
Korea's Kospi .KS11 fell 6% and the won hit a decade-low
even as the central bank was buying dollars to prop up the
currency. Markets in Hong Kong and China fell. .SS
"We're in this phase where investors are just looking to
liquidate their positions," said Prashant Newnaha, senior
interest rate strategist at TD Securities in Singapore.
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 .SPX fell 5% and is
down nearly 30% over a month. Household-name blue chips plunged,
with General Motors GM.N and Boeing BA.N , each symbols of
U.S. industrial might, losing more than 17% in a single day.
The ECB on Wednesday pledged to buy 750 billion euro ($820
billion) in bonds through 2020, with Greek debt and
non-financial commercial paper eligible under the programme for
the first time. It follows emergency interest rate cuts around the globe,
enormous fiscal support packages and six central banks promising
discount dollars to alleviate a squeeze in greenback funding.
But so far none of it has been able to put a floor under
dire sentiment, and some $15 trillion in shareholder value has
been wiped out in little more than a month of heavy selling.
"Liquidity is not the problem this time around," said
Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at brokerage CMC
Markets in Sydney.
"This is about the impact on demand and the disruption of
global supply chain...(bond buying) is not speaking directly to
the key problem for markets."

SELL EVERYTHING
Selling extended across almost all asset classes. Benchmark
10-year sovereign bond yields in Australia, New Zealand,
Malaysia, Korea and Singapore and Thailand surged. AUD/
In currency markets, everything except the dollar and -
thanks to the ECB, the euro - collapsed. Sterling GBP= fell 1%
to $1.1495. The New Zealand dollar NZD=D3 fell 3% to $0.5540
and the Aussie AUD=D3 was pounded to $0.5592. FRX/
The Reserve Bank of Australia is due to make an out-of-cycle
policy announcement at 0330 GMT at which it is expected to cut
rates and introduce quantitative easing for the first time.
U.S. 10-year Treasuries US10YT=RR , usually a haven in
times of turmoil, were steady but have suffered their sharpest
two-day selloff in nearly 20 years.
Gold XAU= is down 3% for the week.
"I'd say the market is uninvestable at this point," said
Daniel Cuthbertson, managing director at Value Point Asset
Management in Sydney. "Until we get a containment of global
contractions, the market is just going to be directionless."
And the virus outbreak has worsened. Italy on Wednesday
reported the largest single-day death toll increase from
coronavirus since the outbreak began in China in late 2019.
It has killed more than 8,700 people globally, infected more
than 212,000 and prompted emergency lockdowns on a scale not
seen in living memory.
Investors are looking to a March German sentiment survey due
at 0900 GMT and U.S. jobless figures due at 1230 GMT for early
signals on how the virus is hitting two of the world's economic
powerhouses.
The U.S. economy could shrink 14% next quarter, a JP Morgan
economist said on Wednesday, one of the most dire calls yet on
the potential hit to the United States. Oil bounced back in Asian trade, with U.S. crude CLc1 last
up 12% to $22.73 and Brent LCOc1 up $1.66 to $26.54. O/R
($1 = 0.9149 euros)

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(Editing by Sam Holmes)