* European shares jump as virus deaths slow in Italy and
France
* Oil prices fall after Russia-Saudi Arabia delay meeting
* Yen drops as Japan readies for state of emergency
* British pound steadies as PM Johnson stays in hospital
* World FX rates in 2020 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
(Updates throughout, changes dateline, byline)
By Marc Jones
LONDON, April 6 (Reuters) - World stock markets jumped on
Monday, encouraged by a slowdown in coronavirus-related deaths
and new cases, though a delay in talks between Saudi Arabia and
Russia to cut supply sent oil tumbling again.
Equity investors were encouraged as the death toll from the
virus slowed across major European nations including France and
Italy. London's FTSE .FTSE raced up 2%, indexes in Paris .FCHI
and Milan .FTMIB rose 3% and Germany's DAX .GDAXI gained
more than 4% after Japan's Nikkei .N225 finished with similar
gains overnight. .EU .T
There was plenty of news to demonstrate just how brutal the
virus has been: eye-popping plunges in car sales and air travel
in Europe, Britain's prime minister being hospitalised
and Japan preparing to declare a state of
emergency. But the markets appeared hopeful.
Wall Street S&P 500 emini futures ESc1 were up almost 4%,
close to their upper limit too, bouyed by comments from U.S.
President Donald Trump that his country was also seeing a
"levelling off" of the crisis. "What is driving the market is the evidence that the number
of new cases has started to turn the corner," said Rabobank's
Head of Macro Strategy Elwin de Groot.
As well as a slowdown in deaths in Italy, he said,
improvements were starting to become visible in Spain and even
in the United States there had been a little bit of a let-up.
"When you see that happening you can start gauging when
lockdowns can start to be gradually lifted. That gives a little
bit more visibility and that is vital," he added, although he
stressed there were still huge uncertainties and risks.
As has been the pattern for most of the year, commodity
markets saw the day's other big moves.
Brent crude LCOc1 fell as much as $4 after Saudi Arabia
and Russia, who have been at loggerheads this year over
production, pushed back the planned start of a meeting of the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its
allies, a group known as OPEC+, until Thursday. O/R
OPEC+ is working on a deal to cut oil production by about
10% of world supply, or 10 million barrels per day (bpd), in
what member states expect to be an unprecedented global effort.
The countries are "very, very close" to a deal on cuts, one
of Russia's top oil negotiators, Kirill Dmitriev, who heads the
nation's wealth fund, told CNBC. But Rystad Energy's head of oil markets Bjornar Tonhaugen
said even if the group agreed to cut up to 15 million bpd, "it
will only be enough to scratch the surface of the more than 23
million bpd supply overhang predicted for April 2020."
EMERGENCY CALLS
In currency markets, the yen fell 0.6% to 109.14 JPY=
against the dollar and weakened against other major currencies
as Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the government would
declare a state of emergency as early as Tuesday to curb a spike
in coronavirus infections.
The dollar barely budged against the euro but the pound
recovered having dipped 0.4% after British Prime Minister Boris
Johnson was admitted to hospital for tests as he was still
suffering symptoms of the coronavirus. Yields on safe-haven German government bonds crept higher in
fixed income markets too, reflecting the slightly brighter tone
in world markets despite some painful data.
Investor morale in the euro zone fell to an all-time low in
April and the currency bloc's economy is now in deep recession
due to the coronavirus, which is "holding the world economy in a
stranglehold", a Sentix survey showed. Orders for German-made goods had already dropped 1.4% in
February, German data showed. British car sales slumped 40% last
month and Norweigen Air's traffic plummeted 60%.
"Never before has the assessment of the current situation
collapsed so sharply in all regions of the world within one
month," Sentix managing director Patrick Hussy said.
"The situation is ... much worse than in 2009," Hussy said.
"Economic forecasts to date underestimate the shrinking process.
The recession will go much deeper and longer."
CRUCIAL TEST
In Asia, stocks had also proven bullish. Australia's
benchmark index .AXJO rose 4.33%, Japan's Nikkei added 4.24%
.N225 after a slow start, while South Korea's KOSPI index
.KS11 climbed 3.85%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index .HSI was
2.18% higher.
That sent MSCI's broadest index of Asian shares outside of
Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS up 2%, on track for its best performance
in more than a week.
Markets in mainland China were closed for a public holiday.
Worryingly, the number of new coronavirus cases jumped in
China on Sunday, while the number of asymptomatic cases surged
too as Beijing continued to struggle to extinguish the outbreak
despite drastic containment efforts.
"Focus in markets will now turn to the path out of lockdown
and to what extent containment measures can be lifted without
risking a second wave of infections," National Australia Bank
analyst Tapas Strickland wrote in a note.
"Key to a strong rebound in China will be the ongoing
lifting of containment measures, with Wuhan – the epicentre of
the outbreak – set to lift containment measures on April 8."
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Asia stock markets https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
Asia-Pacific valuations https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dr2BQA
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(Additional Reporting by Swati Pandey and Paulina Duran in
Sydney
Editing by Gareth Jones)