Fubotv earnings beat by $0.10, revenue topped estimates
(Updates with U.S. close)
* Wall Street gains as policymakers pull out all the stops
* Dollar surges to highest since January 2017
* ECB launches 750 billion-euro asset purchase program
* Euro STOXX 600 rises in volatile trade
* Asian stock markets : https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
* Graphic: World FX rates in 2020 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
By Chris Prentice and Tom Wilson
WASHINGTON/LONDON, March 19 (Reuters) - European and
American stocks rebounded on Thursday, halting further declines,
in a sign further steps to boost liquidity by the U.S. Federal
Reserve and other central banks has tentatively calmed markets
that still fear a coronavirus-induced slowdown.
The Fed's most recent move to reduce risk and loosen up
tight markets, especially trading for Treasury securities,
helped lift the dollar to a fresh three-year high against a
basket of major currencies =USD and push bond yields lower.
The Fed increased access to dollars for central banks in
nine countries so contracts can be taken out in key commodities
and other goods that are made in the U.S. currency. The U.S. central bank said swaps, in which the Fed accepts
other currencies as collateral in exchange for dollars, will be
in place for at least the next six months.
The swaps will allow the central banks of Australia, Brazil,
South Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and New
Zealand to tap a combined total of up to $450 billion to help
ensure the world's dollar-dependent financial system functions.
The collateral to purchase crude oil, for example, is U.S.
Treasury debt and to buy those securities requires dollars, said
Michael Skordeles, U.S. macro strategist at Truist/Suntrust
Advisory Services in Atlanta.
"All these things kind of happening at once causes a lot of
dominoes to fall, and as the dominoes fall, it creates more
demand, pushing people toward the dollar," Skordeles said.
"This (the dollar swap lines) is going to help, but it's not
a silver bullet," he said. "Because there's a flow of capital
into dollar-denominated assets, in particular U.S. Treasuries,
it's starving these countries of liquidity and making the dollar
appreciate."
U.S. oil prices surged about 25%, recouping some losses from
a sell-off that drove prices to near 20-year lows over the past
month, but analysts saw the rebound as a brief reprieve from the
economic tsunami the virus is expected to cause. Stocks responded, rebounding from initial declines, as
investors held out hope the latest policymaker efforts will stop
the freefall in equity markets and reduce the selling of bonds.
But stocks on Wall Street pared some gains at the close.
The aggressive moves by both central banks and governments
have been met with a muted market response and have failed to
boost overall sentiment, said Candice Bangsund, a global asset
allocation strategist at Fiera Capital in Montreal.
"Investors remain intensely focused on the progression of
the fast-spreading pandemic and its implications for the global
economy," she said.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS
gained 0.22% and emerging market stocks lost 2.41%.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose
188.27 points, or 0.95%, to 20,087.19. The S&P 500 .SPX gained
11.29 points, or 0.47%, to 2,409.39 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC added 160.73 points, or 2.3%, to 7,150.58.
The meltdown in markets had pushed Wall Street's three main
indexes down about 30% as of Wednesday from their record closing
highs last month.
TREASURY YIELDS FALL IN VOLATILE TRADE
Global bond prices gyrated, with desperate investors dumping
government bonds and hoarding cash in markets gripped by
pandemic fears that have forced central banks to step up support
for debt.
U.S. Treasury yields largely fell in volatile trading, a
sign the Fed's efforts were working. US/
Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 28/32 in price
to yield 1.1667%.
The dollar rallied further as investors rushed to secure
liquidity. The British pound GBP=D3 was down in choppy trade
and slipped past the previous day's trough to the lowest since
at least 1985. Bond markets stabilized somewhat after the European Central
Bank pledged late Wednesday to buy 750 billion euros ($820
billion) in sovereign debt through 2020. That brought the ECB's
planned purchases for this year to 1.1 trillion euros.
The dollar index =USD rose 1.846% and the Japanese yen
JPY= weakened 2.26% versus the greenback at 110.58 per dollar.
Government bond yields in Italy and across the euro zone
dropped after the ECB's emergency measures, though European
stocks fell back into negative territory after arresting their
rout in early trading.
Expected price swings for some of the world's biggest
currencies rocketed to multiyear highs as the demand for
dollars forced traders to dump currencies across the board.
For the British pound versus the dollar, expected volatility
gauges leapt to 24.4%, their highest level since before the 2016
Brexit vote. "One unresolved and really critical issue is what's going on
in volatility," said Andrew Sheets, chief cross-asset strategist
at Morgan Stanley. "I think that volatility needs to stabilise
before the broader market can heal."
Italy, which has seen its borrowing costs jump in recent
days, led the drop in yields after the ECB move.
The gap over the safer German Bund's yields tightened.
The U.S. Fed earlier promised a liquidity facility for money
market mutual funds, and Australia's central bank slashed
interest rates to a record low of 0.25%.
Traders reported huge strains in bond markets, however, as
distressed funds sold any liquid asset to cover equity losses
and investor redemptions. Benchmark 10-year sovereign bond yields in New Zealand,
Malaysia, Korea, Singapore and Thailand surged as prices fell,
and U.S. 10-year Treasuries US10YT=RR rose 10 basis points
through the session.
The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 9,700 people
globally, infected more than 236,000 and prompted widespread
emergency lockdowns. Gold XAU= fell and, like other assets, was buffeted by
volatility. Copper, a gauge of global economic health, hit its
down-limit in Shanghai, and London futures traded in London
CMCU3 fell to their lowest since 2016. MET/L
U.S. gold futures GCcv1 settled up 0.1% at $1,479.30 an
ounce.
For Reuters Live Markets blog on European and UK stock
markets, please click on: LIVE/
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Equities and bonds total return https://tmsnrt.rs/3deypWu
Emerging market currencies sink https://tmsnrt.rs/39YjsWG
Powerful central bank action helps stem bond market drubbing
plunges to three-year lows as dollar demand jumps
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