GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia stocks pull ahead on U.S. stimulus, oil rebound

By Katanga Johnson and Swati Pandey
WASHINGTON/SYDNEY, April 23 (Reuters) - Asian stock markets
rose on Thursday as the combination of a rebound in crude prices
from historic lows and the promise of more U.S. government aid
to cushion the coronavirus-ravaged economy helped calm nervous
markets.
Better-than-expected U.S. corporate earnings also lifted
equities, analysts said, though overall sentiment remained
fragile as the pandemic cut a destructive path through the world
economy.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside of
Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS bounced from two-week lows to be up 0.5%
at 460.43 points.
Australian S&P/ASX .AXJO added 0.4%, Chinese shares opened
firm with the blue-chip index .CSI300 up 0.3%. Japan's Nikkei
.N225 climbed 0.8%.
The gains followed a strong overnight lead from Wall Street
with the Dow .DJI up 2%, S&P 500 .SPX adding 2.3% and Nasdaq
.IXIC rising 2.8%.
All 11 S&P 500 sector indexes climbed as the U.S. Senate
unanimously approved the new relief package, adding to trillions
of dollars in stimulus that has helped Wall Street rebound from
its March lows.
The House of Representatives is expected on Thursday to
clear the relief, which would be the fourth coronavirus measure
passed by Congress, and would boost the overall federal
financial response to almost $3 trillion. Stock markets may have bottomed out after the impressive
bounce since a rout last month, analysts said.
Even so, the recent recovery has been narrowly focussed on
the big tech firms, said Seema Shah, chief strategist at
Principal Global Investors.
Four out of every five stocks are still in a bear market
while European benchmark equity indices and the U.S. small-cap
index are also in bear territory, "throwing severe doubts on the
impression that investors are optimistic about the outlook," she
added.
However, Shah believes market positioning may now work to
propel markets higher, helped by solid policy stimulus around
the world.
"Investors have built up meaningful cash positions
suggesting that, not only is indiscriminate selling behind us,
but investors have sufficient dry powder to take advantage of
attractively valued risk assets."
In Europe, traders were buoyed after Italy breezed through a
major debt sale on Tuesday and speculation continued that the
European Central Bank would provide more support measures.
Still, it may take European Union countries until the summer
if not longer to agree on how to finance aid to help economies
recover from the pandemic as major disagreements persist, a bloc
official said on Wednesday. Brent oil LCOc1 extended gains on Thursday to rise more
than 3% to $21.09 a barrel on the prospects for further
production cuts to reduce the glut in the oil market, sending
the S&P 500 energy index .SPNY up 3.6%.
U.S. crude CLc1 was up 3.3% at $14.22. U.S. crude futures
fell deep into negative territory on Monday as the market
grappled with a supply glut and cratering demand.
In currencies, the dollar was barely changed against the
Japanese yen JPY= at 107.72. It was slightly firm against the
risk sensitive currencies of Australia AUD=D3 and New Zealand
NZD=D3 at $0.6310 and $0.5941 respectively.
The euro EUR= was a shade weaker at $1.08 while the
British pound was mostly unchanged at $1.2330.
That left the dollar index =USD at 100.38, down 0.1%.

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