GLOBAL MARKETS-Big tech lifts equities as Biden rebuilding plan in focus

(Adds byline, dateline; previous LONDON)
* Focus on Biden's multitrillion-dollar plan
* UST 10-yr yields set for largest quarterly gain since Q4
2016
* MSCI's All Country World Index 0.4% higher
* Deliveroo shares plunge 30% in London debut
* U.S. dollar near one-year highs against Japanese yen

By Herbert Lash and Tom Arnold
NEW YORK/LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) - The dollar hit a
one-year high versus the yen and technology stocks led Wall
Street and a key gauge of global equities higher on Wednesday,
ahead of an announcement by President Joe Biden of a
multitrillion-dollar plan to rebuild America's infrastructure.
The relentless rise of U.S. bond yields, with 10-year yields
US10YT=TWEB on course for their biggest quarterly rise since
the fourth quarter of 2016, earlier weighed on sentiment even as
Chinese data suggested a solid global economic recovery.
Big tech surged on Wall Street, with Apple Inc AAPL.O ,
Microsoft Corp MSFT.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Tesla Inc
TLSA.O and Facebook Inc FB.O pushing the benchmark S&P 500
to a fresh peak and lifting the Nasdaq more than 1%.
In Europe, shares drifted slightly lower. The regional STOXX
600 index .STOXX fell 0.1%, but was on course for its second
straight month of gains. Britain's blue-chip FTSE 100 .FTSE
index fell 0.9% as online food delivery firm Deliveroo ROO.L
closed down 30% on its first day of trading. Britain's economy grew more than expected, 1.3%, in the
final quarter of last year, but still shrank the most in more
than three centuries in 2020 as a whole. Some global banks face billions of dollars in losses after
U.S. hedge fund Archegos Capital Management defaulted on margin
calls, putting investors on edge about who else, especially
banks, might be exposed.
But focus for much of the quarter has been on the surge in
bond yields, making equity valuations look lofty, particularly
for the major tech companies that have borne the brunt of the
recent sell-off.
On Wednesday, 10-year Treasury yields US10YT=TWEB rose as
high as 1.746% from Tuesday's 1.708% and were last at 1.714%.
Euro zone bonds calmed, but Germany's 10-year yield was set
for its biggest quarterly jump since the fourth quarter of 2019.
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, in a
Bloomberg TV interview on Wednesday, defied investors who have
been pushing up borrowing costs on the euro zone's bond markets
to test the ECB's resolve. Investors were looking ahead to Biden's trip to Pittsburgh
on Wednesday, where he is expected to push for a "Build Back
Better" plan. Its price tag could be as high as $4 trillion to
pay for conventional roads and bridges while also tackling
climate change and domestic policy issues like income equality.
Talk of taxes in 2021 is premature and is creating a lot of
apprehension as investors grapple with the question of how long
will the economic recovery trade last, said Kristina Hooper,
chief global market strategist at Invesco in New York.
"All these spending initiatives that are being talked about
are all coming with price tags of higher taxes. That's a hard
pill to swallow when the economy is still very much getting its
sea legs and is still very much in recovery mode," Hooper said.
The plans have a tortuous journey in Congress and likely
will look very different once all the political wrangling is
done, said James Athey, investment director at Aberdeen Standard
Investments.
"If investors are weighing the risks appropriately, there
shouldn't be much impact on markets in the short term," he said.
MSCI's benchmark for global equity markets .MIWD00000PUS
rose 0.4% to 674.81. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial
Average .DJI rose 0.04%, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.71% and
the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 1.83%.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside of
Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS fell 0.4%, marking its first monthly loss
in five months.
China's blue-chip index .CSI300 sank 0.9% and Japan's
Nikkei .N225 slid 0.9% as investors sold financial shares amid
growing uncertainty over the fallout from the margin calls that
brought down Archegos Capital.
Currencies were lower against the dollar. The greenback hit
a one-year high of 110.48 against the yen as investors bet
fiscal stimulus and aggressive vaccinations would boost the U.S.
recovery. FRX/ JPY=
The dollar is on track for a third monthly rise against the
yen and its biggest since the end of 2016. The dollar index,
tracking it against six major currencies, rose as far as 93.439,
the highest in almost five months, before trimming gains.
The index =USD was last down 0.174%, with the euro EUR=
up 0.26% to $1.1745. The Japanese yen JPY= weakened 0.19%
versus the greenback at 110.57 per dollar.
In commodities, Brent crude futures LCOc1 fell $0.25 to
$63.89 a barrel, while U.S. crude futures CLc1 gained $0.25 to
$60.8 a barrel.
Spot gold prices XAU= rose 1.36% to $1,707.64 an ounce.

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Global assets http://tmsnrt.rs/2jvdmXl
Global currencies vs. dollar http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
Emerging markets http://tmsnrt.rs/2ihRugV
MSCI All Country World Index Market Cap http://tmsnrt.rs/2EmTD6j
Deliveroo shares plunge in London debut https://tmsnrt.rs/3rLH6xX
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