GLOBAL MARKETS-Safe havens rally, equities slide, as European COVID-19 cases rise

(Updates through midday U.S. trading)
By David Randall
NEW YORK, March 25 (Reuters) - Safe-haven assets such as the
dollar and U.S. Treasuries edged higher while global equity
benchmarks and bitcoin slid on Thursday, weighed by rising
coronavirus cases in Europe and a selloff that pushed Chinese
blue-chip shares to their lowest levels since early December.
Oil prices sank after surging on Wednesday after a container
ship became stuck in the Suez Canal. The ship, which a salvage
team described as a "beached whale," may block the vital
shipping lane for weeks, officials said. L1N2LN0AX
European shares fell on data showing the biggest rise in new
confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany since Jan. 9 and the
largest number of patients with COVID-19 requiring intensive
care in France in the year to date. The dollar index =USD hit its highest since November
overnight, at 92.697, breaking its 200-day moving average.
The dollar index =USD rose 0.179%, with the euro EUR=
down 0.22% to $1.1786.
"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
0.38%, dropping for a second day and was at its lowest 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 midday trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial
Average .DJI fell 105.41 points, or 0.33%, to 32,314.65, the
S&P 500 .SPX lost 14.23 points, or 0.37%, to 3,874.91 and the
Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 96.60 points, or 0.75%, to
12,865.29.
Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last fell 1/32 in price
to yield 1.6156%, 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 that the U.S. economy is
rebounding from the pandemic.
"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 recently fell 5.12% to $58.05 per barrel
and Brent LCOc1 was at $61.75, down 4.13% on the day.
Spot gold XAU= dropped 0.2% to $1,730.04 an ounce, while
bitcoin slid nearly 5%.

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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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