* ECB launches $850 bln bond buying programme
* U.S. stock futures turn positive, euro rises
* Nikkei higher, Australia and Korea volatile
* Asian stock markets : https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
By Tom Westbrook
SINGAPORE, March 19 (Reuters) - Asian stocks struggled to
find their footing in volatile trade on Thursday, as the latest
promise of stimulus from the European Central Bank propped up
sentiment while the world struggles to contain the coronavirus
pandemic.
U.S. stock futures EScv1 turned positive and rose nearly
2% after the ECB announced a bond-buying programme. Japan's
Nikkei .N225 opened 1.4% higher.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS dipped 0.25% amid choppy trade throughout the
region, with Australia's benchmark .AXJO running as much as 3%
higher before returning to flat and Korea's Kospi .KS11
gyrating.
The ECB will buy 750 billion euro ($820 billion) in bonds
through 2020, with Greek debt and non-financial commercial paper
eligible under the programme for the first time. "It's given us a shot in the arm," said Michael McCarthy,
chief market strategist at brokerage CMC Markets in Sydney, but
he added he expects it to be short-lived.
"This is about the impact on demand and the disruption of
global supply chain...(bond buying) is not speaking directly to
the key problem for markets. I doubt very much this is a turning
point," he said.
Underlining the fragility of sentiment
Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 .SPX fell 5% and is
down nearly 30% over a month. Household-name blue chips plunged,
with General Motors GM.N and Boeing BA.N , each symbols of
U.S. industrial might, losing more than 17% in a single day.
Selling extended across almost all asset classes as
investors liquidated portfolios. .N
Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasuries US10YT=RR , usually a
haven in times of turmoil, suffered their sharpest two-day
selloff in nearly 20 years. Gold XAU= is down 3% for the week
and oil fell to an 18-year low as quarantine lockdowns spread
across the globe.
In currency markets, the dollar is king and jumped to a
three-year high overnight amid a rush for the world's reserve
currency in times of crisis. FRX/
On Wednesday, the virus outbreak worsened. Italy reported
the largest single-day death toll from coronavirus since the
outbreak began in China in late 2019. It has killed more than 8,700 people globally, infected more
than 212,000 and prompted emergency lockdowns on a scale not
seen in living memory.
"It is serious. Take it seriously," German Chancellor Angela
Merkel told her nation in a televised speech amid the shutdown
of almost everything except bakeries, banks, pharmacies and
grocers. The ECB's move follows emergency interest rate cuts around
the globe, enormous fiscal support packages and six central
banks promising discount dollars to banks to alleviate a squeeze
in greenback funding.
But so far none of it has been able to put a floor under
dire sentiment, and some $15 trillion in shareholder value has
been wiped out in little more than a month of heavy selling.
The U.S. economy could shrink 14% next quarter, a JP Morgan
economist said on Wednesday, one of the most dire calls yet on
the potential hit to the United States.
"I'd say the market is uninvestable at this point," said
Daniel Cuthbertson, managing director at Value Point Asset
Management in Sydney. "Until we get a containment of global
contractions, the market is just going to be directionless."
On Thursday, the Reserve Bank of Australia pumped a record
$7.4 billion into the banking system and is due to make an
out-of-cycle policy announcement at 0330 GMT. Investors are also looking to a March German sentiment
survey due at 0900 GMT and U.S. jobless figures due at 1230 GMT
for early signals on how the virus is hitting two of the world's
economic powerhouses.
Oil bounced back in Asian trade, with U.S. crude CLc1 last
up 17% to $23.84 and Brent LCOc1 up $2 to $27.06. O/R
($1 = 0.9149 euros)
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(Editing by Sam Holmes)