GLOBAL MARKETS-Shares rally, retail surge drives silver higher

* Global stocks up 0.5%; S&P 500 futures up 0.8%
* Retail crowd turns gaze on silver, jumps to 6-mth high
* Dollar ebbs, oil firmer

By Simon Jessop and Wayne Cole
LONDON/SYDNEY, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Global shares bounced and
silver markets surged on Monday as retail investors expanded
their social-media fuelled battle against Wall Street to drive
the precious metal to a five-month high.
Stock markets had been roiled last week after spike in
retail demand to buy the stocks most bet against by hedge funds
driving huge gains in companies such as GameStop Corp GME.N
and prompting fresh concern that COVID-19 monetary and fiscal
support measures were fuelling a market bubble.
With chatrooms abuzz with talk that silver was the new
target, silver-exposed stocks, funds and coins jumped in Asian
trade, pushing spot silver XAG= up more than 7%. European stocks continued the trend in early deals, with
London-listed miners up strongly, including Fresnillo FRES.L ,
up 18% and leading gainers across the region.
After falling 3.6% last week - its biggest weekly fall in
three months - the MSCI All-Country World Index .MIWD00000PUS
was up 0.5% in early deals, tracking overnight gains in Asia.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS climbed 1.4% while Japan's Nikkei .N225 added
1.2% and Chinese blue chips .CSI300 rose 0.5% after the
country's central bank injected more cash into money markets.
Futures for the S&P 500 ESc1 and NASDAQ NQc1 , meanwhile,
both pointed to a stronger open on Wall Street, up around 0.8%.
While the retail battle versus Wall Street, coordinated over
online forums such as Reddit, created some systemic risks, the
bigger danger was in the tech sector, where some stocks had "eye
watering valuations", Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid said.
"Retail has in many parts driven such valuations in the last
10 months. If this pops the wider market will have bigger issues
than last week."
Gold followed silver higher to $1,862 an ounce XAU= , while
oil also tracked the gains in other commodities, with both Brent
crude LCOc1 and its U.S. peer CLc1 up around 1%. O/R
While the stock market tussle grabbed continued to grab the
headlines, analysts cautioned the bigger concern was economic
momentum in the United States and Europe as coronavirus
lockdowns bite.
Indeed, two surveys from China showed factory activity
slowed in January as restrictions took a toll in some regions.
In the euro zone, manufacturing growth remained resilient at the
start of the year but the pace waned from December. Data out of
Britain will be in focus later in the European session.
While the coronavirus vaccine rollout globally remains slow,
with concern about whether they will work on new COVID strains,
Europe was also bolstered by news that it would receive a
further 9 million doses from AstraZeneca in the first quarter.
"It is these considerations, not what is happening to a
video game retailer day to day, that has weighed on risk
assets," said John Briggs, global head of strategy at NatWest
Markets. "So much of the market's valuations, risk in
particular, is premised on the fact we can see a light at the
end of the COVID tunnel."
Doubts have emerged, though, about the future of President
Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion relief package, with 10 Republican
senators urging a $600 billion plan. Higher yields combined with the more cautious market mood
have seen the safe-haven dollar steady above its recent lows.
The dollar index stood at 90.722 =USD , having bounced from a
trough of 89.206 hit early in January.
The euro, meanwhile, fell 0.3% to $1.2100 EUR= , well off
its recent peak at $1.2349.

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(Editing by Toby Chopra)