GLOBAL MARKETS-Oil gains, stocks rally on renewed recovery hopes

(Adds byline, dateline, previous LONDON)
* Nasdaq within 5% of all-time high on Amazon, Facebook
records
* Oil, equity markets rise on recovery hopes
* Euro gains on Franco-German plan for recovery fund
* Graphic: World FX rates in 2020 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh

By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, May 20 (Reuters) - Crude prices rose and a gauge
of global equities broke out of a three-week trading range on
Wednesday as investors bet on a rapid recovery from the
coronavirus-induced recession.
Oil prices climbed more than 4% on signs of improving demand
and a drawdown in U.S. crude inventories, while a surge in
Facebook Inc FB.O and Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O to fresh records
lifted the Nasdaq to within 5% of its all-time high.
U.S. Treasury yields were little changed and gold edged
higher but gains were limited as risk appetite improved.
The markets are expecting economic recovery sooner rather
than later though the risk exists that the slowdown isn't as
temporary as some think, said Michael Arone, chief investment
strategist at State Street Global Advisors in Boston.
"There's a view that as the economy reopens there hasn't
been, so far, a resurgence in the hospitalization rates and that
perhaps some of the 'worst-ever' data that we've seen will soon
be behind us," Arone said.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS
gained 1.28% to within 1 point of 500, after the benchmark was
unable to climb past 495 the past three weeks.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX rose 0.98% to
close just shy of a three-week high led by tech, chemicals and
energy sectors.
Gains in energy, financial and industrial stocks signal the
economy is rebounding, as economic data and corporate earnings
do not provide the snapshot they usually do, Arone said.
"I'm looking at the price charts because the price charts
will tell us about when the recovery will be here and how
aggressive it will be," he said.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose
328.44 points, or 1.36%, to 24,535.3. The S&P 500 .SPX gained
45.54 points, or 1.56%, to 2,968.48 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC added 159.66 points, or 1.74%, to 9,344.76.
Two-thirds of 223 fund managers surveyed by Bank of America
reckon recent equity gains indicate a bear-market rally.
U.S. crude inventories fell by 5 million barrels in the week
ended May 15 to 526.5 million barrels, data from the Energy
Information Administration showed, far better that analysts'
expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.2 million-barrel rise.
EIA/S
U.S. crude CLc1 rose 2.75% to $32.84 per barrel and Brent
LCOc1 was at $35.30, up 1.88% on the day.
The euro extended gains on Monday's Franco-German proposal
for a 500 billion euro common fund that could move Europe closer
to a fiscal union.
The euro EUR= rose 0.48% to $1.0973 and the dollar index
=USD fell 0.35%. The Japanese yen JPY= strengthened 0.16%
versus the greenback at 107.56 per dollar.

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(Editing by Bernadette Baum)