GLOBAL MARKETS-Dollar rallies, equities flat, as European COVID-19 cases rise

(Updates through afternoon U.S. trading.)
By David Randall
NEW YORK, March 25 (Reuters) - The dollar hovered near
four-month highs and global equity benchmarks were little
changed Thursday as investors weighed rising coronavirus cases
in Europe with improved unemployment numbers in the United
States that suggested the world's largest economy was rebounding
from the pandemic.
Oil prices sank after surging on Wednesday when a container
ship became stuck in the Suez Canal. The ship may block the
vital shipping lane for weeks. L1N2LN0AX
European markets edged lower following the biggest rise in
new coronavirus cases in Germany since Jan. 9 and the largest
number of patients with COVID-19 requiring intensive care in
France so far this year. The dollar index =USD hit its highest since November
overnight, at 92.697, breaking its 200-day moving average.
The dollar index =USD rose 0.201%, with the euro EUR=
down 0.27% to $1.178.
"The dollar is absolutely critical," said James Athey,
investment director at Aberdeen Standard Investments. "If the
dollar starts rallying, that becomes a problem. It means
commodity weakness and emerging-market weakness and it starts to
provide a disinflationary countervailing narrative."
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS shed
0.05%, hovering near its lowest level in more than two weeks.
Weighing on sentiment was a selloff in Chinese technology
shares amid concern they will be delisted from U.S. exchanges
on worries about a semiconductor shortage.
In Hong Kong, companies with U.S. listings led declines.
JD.com 9618.HK lost 3.57% and Alibaba 9988.HK fell 3.91%.
China's blue-chip CSI300 index .CSI300 edged 0.05% lower
to its lowest close since Dec. 11, weighed by jitters about
policy tightening and rising tensions between China and Western
countries over allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
In afternoon trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones
Industrial Average .DJI rose 103.07 points, or 0.32%, to
32,523.13, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 8.46 points, or 0.22%, to
3,897.6 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 29.52 points,
or 0.23%, to 12,932.37.
Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last fell 2/32 in price
to yield 1.6191%, from 1.614% late on Wednesday.
Investors have focused on the 10-year Treasury yield,
pondering whether there is room for long-term interest rates to
run, said David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Asset
Management. "We know that the economy is primed to begin to really
accelerate in the second quarter," Kelly said. "But we haven't
seen that acceleration yet, so that's what we're waiting for."
The number of Americans filing new jobless claims fell to a
one-year low last week, a sign the U.S. economy is on the verge
of stronger growth as its vaccine rollout accelerates.
L1N2LM2FD
"We're getting a little softness in the markets on
virus-variant jitters, but we're buyers on weakness as the
economy gets closer to a full-scale reopening," said Cliff
Hodge, chief investment officer for Cornerstone Wealth.
U.S. crude CLc1 fell 4.3% to $58.55 per barrel and Brent
LCOc1 was at $61.87, down 3.94% on the day.
Spot gold XAU= dropped 0.3% to $1,729.19 an ounce, while
bitcoin slid 3%.

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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
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