Orsted considers €5 billion rights offering to strengthen finances - Bloomberg
By David Randall
NEW YORK, April 23 (Reuters) - Global equity benchmarks
edged higher Thursday as investors weighed an ongoing rebound in
oil prices against stark economic data from Europe and the
United States that further illustrated the worldwide toll from
the coronavirus pandemic.
IHS Markit's Flash Composite Purchasing Managers' Index
(PMI) the European Union, seen as a good gauge of economic
health, sank to by far its lowest reading since the survey began
in mid-1998. In the UK, PMIs fell to a new record low in March -
and far below even the weakest forecast in a Reuters poll of
economists.
U.S. jobless claims, meanwhile, fell to 4.427 million, a
decline from 5.2 million the week before but still about 200,000
more than expected. A record 26 million Americans have sought
unemployment benefits over the last five weeks "While markets are going to take this drop as being very
positive, it is not a victory flag that recession is going to be
avoided," said Steven Blitz, chief U.S. economist at TS Lombard
in New York.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS
gained 0.74%.following modest gains in Europe and Asia.
In early trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial
Average .DJI rose 165.87 points, or 0.71%, to 23,641.69, the
S&P 500 .SPX gained 22.3 points, or 0.80%, to 2,821.61 and the
Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 66.73 points, or 0.79%, to
8,562.11.
Safe-haven assets like the dollar and government bonds were
little changed. Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose
1/32 in price to yield 0.6172%, from 0.619% late on Wednesday.
An internal EU note showed the bloc's commission was
considering a plan worth 2 trillion euros ($2.2 trillion) to
tackle a deep recession. An EU meeting to discuss the plan comes
a day after the U.S. Congress appeared to be on course to
approve nearly $500 billion more in coronavirus aid, taking the
world's biggest economy's overall stimulus packages to nearly $3
trillion.
"(The) EU Council meeting will be closely watched to see how
quickly EU policy-makers will move towards area-wide fiscal
risk-sharing," said George Cole, an economist at Goldman Sachs.
"We expect the discussions to fall short of a full commitment to
mutualize risks from the COVID-19 shock."
The prospects of further stimulus measures and increasing
tensions between the United States and Iran helped bolster oil
prices. U.S. crude CLc1 recently rose 21.19% to $16.70 per
barrel and Brent LCOc1 was at $22.09, up 8.44% on the day.
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Global assets http://tmsnrt.rs/2jvdmXl
Global currencies vs. dollar http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
Emerging markets http://tmsnrt.rs/2ihRugV
MSCI All Country Wolrd Index Market Cap http://tmsnrt.rs/2EmTD6j
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