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(Updates through close of U.S. trading)
By David Randall and Suzanne Barlyn
NEW YORK, April 9 (Reuters) - Global equity benchmarks moved
higher on Thursday following signs of some success by
governments and central banks which have taken additional steps
to bolster their economies during the COVID-19 pandemic, while
oil prices pulled back from an earlier surge.
Oil prices ended the day in negative territory after an
earlier surge as OPEC and its allies hammered out an agreement
to cut output that was smaller than the market was
expecting. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS
gained 1.58%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 285.8 points,
or 1.22%, to 23,719.37; the S&P 500 .SPX gained 39.84 points,
or 1.45%, to 2,789.82 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
62.67 points, or 0.77%, to 8,153.58.
Gains in the United States were bolstered after the Federal
Reserve announced a $2.3 trillion effort to support local
governments and small to medium-sized businesses. The U.S.
central bank said it would begin buying municipal bonds issued
by state and local governments in order to help them respond to
the health crisis. The S&P 500 gained more than 10% since the start of the
holiday-shortened week.
"Sentiment remains volatile, but investors appear to be
looking through the growing headline numbers of COVID-19 cases
and focusing on signs that the spread of the pandemic is being
brought under control, which in turn is underpinning hopes for a
relatively swift relaxation of containment measures," said Mark
Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth
Management.
On Thursday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state's
efforts at social distancing were working in getting the virus
under control in the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak.
New cases in hospitals fell to a low of 200 in a sign that
the disease's curve was flattening in the state. But New York
state also recorded a record-high 799 deaths on Wednesday, for a
total of 7,067.
"You can't relax. The flattening of the curve last night
happened because of what we did yesterday," Cuomo said.
Members of U.S. President Donald Trump's economic team have
been bullish on re-opening of the economy.
Asked on CNBC on Thursday whether he believed the U.S.
economy could be reopened as soon as next month, Treasury
Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, “I do.” As soon as Trump “feels
comfortable with the medical issues,” he said. The euro gained against the dollar EUR=D3 on hopes euro
zone finance ministers would agree on more support for their
coronavirus-hit economies. Yet concerns about the toll of the slowdown measures on the
global economy kept a lid on a broad move into riskier assets
after U.S. jobless claims data exceeded 6 million for the second
straight week, according to data released on Thursday.
Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 15/32 in price
to yield 0.7175%, from 0.764% late on Wednesday.
"We're probably on pace to lose more jobs in April alone
than we lost during the entire Great Recession," said Dante
DeAntonio, senior economist at Moody's Analytics in New York.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and
its allies, including Russia - a group known as OPEC+ - held
talks on Thursday on record oil output curbs of about 15 million
barrels per day (bpd) or more, roughly 15% of global supplies,
to support prices hammered by the coronavirus crisis, sources
involved in the discussions said. They said the plan included cuts of about 5 million bpd from
producers outside the group known as OPEC+ and could be made
gradually.
U.S. crude CLc1 dropped 7.4% to $23.22 a barrel. Brent
crude LCOc1 fell 3% to $31.85 per barrel.
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Global currencies vs. dollar http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
MSCI All Country Wolrd Index Market Cap http://tmsnrt.rs/2EmTD6j
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