* World stocks down for third straight day
* Oil, bonds ease, dollar steadies after U.S. jobless claims
* COVID-19 infection rates surge in United States, Japan
By Alwyn Scott
NEW YORK, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Stocks were broadly lower on
Thursday, and oil prices slipped, as a weak reading on U.S.
employment and new COVID-19 restrictions offset recent optimism
about reported progress on coronavirus vaccines.
The dollar steadied and U.S. 10-year Treasury yields fell
after the U.S. reported an unexpectedly large rise in jobless
claims in the week ended Nov. 14.
The latest U.S. tally of new claims for unemployment
insurance showed 742,000 compared with 711,000 the prior week
and forecasts of 707,000 among economists polled by Reuters.
The dollar had been trending higher earlier in the day,
though its gains were tempered by renewed concern about further
monetary easing to shore up the economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was down 0.16% and
the S&P 500 .SPX was off 0.33%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC had added 0.28%.
Positive news about possible vaccines had helped push the
MSCI World Index to a record high earlier in the week, but
investors pulled back as a host of countries announced record
infection rates and tougher lockdowns to curb the virus' spread.
The MSCI benchmark for global equity markets .MIWD00000PUS
fell 0.45% to 610.11. Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index
.FTEU3 dropped 0.75% to 1,496.62.
The dollar index =USD rose 0.017%, with the euro EUR=
down 0.08% to $1.1843.
Treasuries Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR rose 8/32 in
price to yield 0.857%, compared with 0.882% late on Wednesday.
The weaker sentiment was partly triggered by a late sell-off
in the U.S. on Wednesday. The S&P 500 .SPX closed down 1.1%,
following news that the country's COVID-19 deaths had passed
250,000, setting off a host of lockdowns. New York City's public
school system, the country's largest, halted in-classroom
instruction in response to rising infections rates. Similarly sombre news in Japan, which saw a record number of
cases and a rise in Tokyo's pandemic alert level, sent the
Nikkei .N225 down 0.4%. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific
shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS fell 0.8%. "The markets probably overshot the vaccine news and are
probably just retreating slightly now because case numbers are
going up," said Gavin Rochussen, chief executive of UK-based
asset manager Polar Capital.
The positive vaccine news had continued Wednesday after
Pfizer PFE.N said its COVID-19 vaccine was 95% effective and
it would apply for emergency U.S. authorization within days,
following a similar recent report from Moderna MRNA.O .
"The vaccines news are a positive medium-term impulse for
the global economic outlook and investors are trying to weigh
that against the prospect of an imminent stalling of the
European and U.S. recovery amid the prospect of extensions of
current lockdown measures," said Rodrigo Catril, a senior FX
strategist at NAB.
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