* European stocks buckle after early gains
* Wall Street futures chop back gains to 1%
* Oil gives up $1 bounce
* Dollar recoups ground on the yen, shoves down euro
* Australian shares surge, Nikkei ends flat
* World FX rates in 2020 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
* Asian stock markets: https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
* Tracking the coronavirus: https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7
*
By Marc Jones
LONDON, March 17 (Reuters) - World share markets and oil
prices struggled to shake off their coronavirus fears on Tuesday
after Wall Street's worst rout since the Black Monday crash of
1987.
After Monday's meltdown, it was another day to test the
nerves. Asia's traders saw the Philippines become the first
country to close its markets. Europe's watched an early rebound
get wiped out as the region's battered airline and travel stocks
suffered another 7% drubbing. .EU .SXTP
Data showed German investor morale at lows last seen in the
2008 financial crisis, and rating agency S&P Global warned the
inevitable global recession this year would lead to a spike in
defaults. All was not lost, though. Wall Street's main markets all
opened more than 2% higher, helped by plans for more U.S. fiscal
stimulus and the dollar recouped some lost ground against the
safe-haven Japanese yen /FRX .
Oil also held up after Brent's slump below $30 a barrel had
added to Monday's carnage O/R .
"I think everyone understands that monetary and fiscal
finance doesn't stop the virus but it can at least alleviate
some of the pressure," said Schroders senior European economist
and strategist Azad Zangana.
"The markets are now looking very cheap ... but the big
issue is momentum in the market and confidence more generally."
With so much uncertainly still, he added, "it is just a
question of waiting it out."
Financial markets nosedived on Monday, with the S&P 500
.SPX tumbling 12% and a fresh blizzard of emergency central
bank rate cuts globally only seemed to add to investor panic.
Tuesday's stabilisation saw Australian shares .AXJO close
5.9% higher, their biggest daily percentage gain since October
2008, after plunging nearly 10% on Monday.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares .MIAPJ0000PUS
and Japan's Nikkei .N225 both finished steady. South Korea
.KS11 finished down 2.4%, however, and there was the landmark
as the Philippines became the first country to suspend all
trading over the virus. Some $2.7 trillion in market value was wiped from the S&P
500 on Monday as it suffered its third-largest daily percentage
decline on record. Over the past 18 days, the benchmark index
has lost $8.3 trillion. World stocks .MIWD00000PUS have
haemorrhaged over $15 trillion.
Futures trade still pointed to a positive open in U.S.
markets. The S&P 500 e-minis ESc1 were up 1.2%, although
earlier they had been up as much as 4%. .N
"The move in U.S. stock futures prompted some buying of
battered down shares and lifted dollar/yen," said Junichi
Ishikawa, senior FX strategist at IG Securities in Tokyo.
"The focus is shifting to the fiscal response to the virus.
We're locked in a pattern where markets bounce and then resume
falling."
WAITING FOR HELP
Gold, which is normally bought as a safe haven, saw another
3% slide as some investors chose to sell whatever they could to
keep their money in cash. GOL/
The U.S. Federal Reserve stunned investors with another
emergency rate cut on Sunday, prompting other central banks to
ease policy in the biggest coordinated response since the global
financial crisis more than a decade ago.
Investors, however, are worried that many have used up their
ammunition and more draconian restrictions on personal movement
are necessary to contain the global coronavirus outbreak.
Group of Seven finance ministers are expected to hold a call
on Tuesday night, though markets want to see signs that the
virus will not snowball out of control as well as fiscal
stimulus.
"I think the priorities of the governments around the world
will probably move away from economic growth towards containing
the virus," said Jim McCafferty, Nomura's joint head of APAC
equity research.
"Safety of national citizens might become a bigger priority.
But with that they want to keep the economies in a working
situation."
Traders are also looking to data due later, after the slump
in German investor sentiment.
The United States will release retail sales and industrial
production figures for February, but they are unlikely to
reflect the impact of the coronavirus just yet.
"The sudden economic stop caused by COVID-19 containment
measures will lead to a global recession this year," S&P Global
said.
In the currency market, the dollar rose 1% to 107 yen
JPY=EBS , after a 2% decline the day before, when the Fed's
rate cut rippled through financial markets.
It also meant the euro dropped 1.6% to $1.10 EUR=EBS and
was headed for its biggest one-day loss since June 2018, and the
Australian dollar AUD=D3 , seen as sensitive to global growth
due to the country's commodities exports, fell to $0.5992, its
weakest since 2003. The Aussie is now down 8% so far in March.
Germany's benchmark 10-year Bund yield rose to a one-month
high in bond markets on growing expectations of a government
spending blast.
Long-dated German bond yields have jumped 50 basis points
from record lows hit just over a week ago. Borrowing costs in
France and Spain, where worries are back about their debt
levels, have hit their highest since last May. EUR/GVD
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