Japan PPI inflation slips to 11-mth low in July
(Adds U.S. market open, byline, dateline)
* Hubei province reports 14,840 new cases
* 10-year Treasury yields drop below 1.6%, European yields
* Euro struggles after slumping to near 3-year low
* World FX rates in 2020 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
By Herbert Lash and Marc Jones
NEW YORK/LONDON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - The dollar rose and
global equity markets slumped on Thursday after a new
methodology that sharply increased the death toll in China from
the coronavirus unnerved investors and halted a rally that had
lifted U.S. and European stocks to record peaks.
Chinese officials said 242 people died in Hubei province on
Wednesday, the biggest daily rise since the virus emerged in the
provincial capital of Wuhan in December. Hubei had previously only allowed infections to be confirmed
by RNA tests, which can take days, and began using computerised
tomography (CT) scans to identify and isolate cases faster. The
move effectively lowered the bar for classifying new infections.
As a result, 14,840 new cases were reported in the province
on Thursday, up from 2,015 new cases nationwide a day earlier.
Investors sought safety in U.S. assets, pushing the yield on
the 10-year U.S. Treasury note lower as the euro plunged to more
than two-year lows against the dollar. The euro also fell to a
four-and-a-half-year low against the Swiss franc EURCHF= .
The United States is expected to weather the economic impact
of the virus better than the euro zone.
AXA Investment Manager's chief economist Gilles Moec said
the impact of the virus could be part of a "perfect storm" for
Europe that hurts the economy for months before it gets
compounded by a heated trade battle with the United States.
"We started with the premise that this virus would be worse
than SARS and that has now become consensus," Moec said.
"So attention turns to who is hit the hardest and Europe is
among the usual suspects and Germany in particular, given China
is its biggest export market. So the reaction of the exchange
rate is probably rational," he added.
The dollar index .DXY was flat, with the euro EUR= down
0.23% to $1.0846.
Europe's main markets followed Asia into red, while stocks
on Wall Street traded slightly lower to little changed.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS shed
0.16% and its emerging markets index lost 0.22%.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX lost 0.02%.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell
68.43 points, or 0.23%, to 29,482.99. The S&P 500 .SPX lost
0.89 points, or 0.03%, to 3,378.56 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC added 2.40 points, or 0.02%, to 9,728.37.
While the jump in reported coronavirus cases was unsettling,
markets in Asia took the news in stride.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS snapped two days of 1% gains to close 0.1% lower
as most markets across the region posted modest declines.
"There is no panic on this," said Frank Benzimra, head of
Asia equity strategy at Societe Generale in Hong Kong, since the
dramatic rise seems so far to be contained to Hubei.
Oil prices rose, shrugging off bearish reports which cut
back demand forecasts for this year on the back of the
coronavirus outbreak in China, the world's biggest oil importer.
Paring losses from earlier in the session, Brent crude
LCOc1 rose 44 cents to $56.23 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas
Intermediate (WTI) CLc1 added 24 cents at $51.41 a barrel.
Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 3/32 in price
to yield 1.6173%.
There was drama for Brexit-bound British markets.
The sudden resignation of the British finance minister Sajid
Javid caused a jump in both sterling and British government bond
yields amid bets his replacement, the 39 year-old Rishi Sunak,
will beef up spending.
Javid's departure, coming less than a month before he was
due to deliver his first budget and after just 204 days on the
job, made him the shortest-serving chancellor of the exchequer
since 1970.
"I suspect he (Sunak) is likely to do whatever Boris Johnson
tells him to do," said Nomura economist George Buckley. "I don't
know what that means for the public finances and fiscal policy
but I doubt it will mean tighter fiscal policy."
World stocks have rebounded https://tmsnrt.rs/38kBVMi
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