GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks fall on worries over EU stimulus details, coronavirus drug

* World stocks down 0.5%
* Investors looking for medical response to coronavirus
* Oil prices extend tentative rebound
* Divisive details on EU stimulus remain unresolved
* Graphic: World FX rates in 2019 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh

By Tom Arnold
LONDON, April 24 (Reuters) - Global shares fell on Friday,
spurred by delays to an agreement on divisive details of the
European Union's stimulus package and doubts about progress in
the development of drugs to treat COVID-19.
MSCI's All Country World Index .MIWD00000PUS , which tracks
stocks across 49 countries, was down 0.5% and heading for its
worst week in three, while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific
shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS shrank 0.9%.
European stocks .STOXX opened 1.4% down, with London's
FTSE 100 .FTSE shedding 1.3% as data showed UK retail sales
crashed in March. "Its a negative session," said François Savary, chief
investment officer at Swiss wealth manager Prime Partners. "The
market for the last week has been under consolidation after a
strong rally. A lot of good news has already been priced in and
news that the number of deaths had increased in the U.S. was
also a warning sign for investors."
Avoiding another all-night bust-up, European Union leaders
agreed on Thursday to build a trillion euro emergency fund to
help recover from the coronavirus pandemic but leaving divisive
details until the summer.
French President Emmanuel Macron said differences continued
between EU governments over whether the fund should be
transferring grant money, or simply making loans.
"The risk exists that a concrete decision on the creation of
the recovery fund may not occur before September, thereby not
being operational before early 2021," Alain Durre at Goldman
Sachs wrote in a note.
The major European sectors fell in early trading, with the
banking index .SX7P leading the declines after S&P cut
Commerzbank's CBKG.DE credit rating by a notch and lowered its
outlook for Deutsche Bank DBKGn.DE to negative from stable.
U.S. stock futures ESc1 were down 0.7% after the S&P 500
.SPX and the Nasdaq .IXIC turned negative at the close on
Thursday in the wake of a report that Gilead Sciences Inc 's
GILD.O antiviral drug remdesivir had failed to help severely
ill COVID-19 patients in its first clinical trial. Gilead said the findings were inconclusive because the study
conducted in China was terminated early.
The markets' sensitivity to news related to the medical
treatment of COVID-19 reflected investors' desperation for a
sign of when the global economy might start returning to normal,
said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at New York-based
wealth management firm Inverness Counsel.
"Any piece of bad news is likely to rattle the market,"
Ghriskey said. "Investors are keen for a semblance of hope that
they can soon crawl out of their homes and get on with some form
of normal life, even if with trepidation and fear."
U.S. coronavirus deaths exceeded 49,000 on Thursday as the
number of lives lost in April rises by an average of 2,000 a
day, according to a Reuters tally.
Business activity in the world's largest economy plumbed
record lows in April, mirroring dire figures from Europe and
Asia as strict stay-at-home orders crushed production, supply
chains and consumer spending, a survey showed. The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a $484
billion bill to expand federal loans to small businesses and
hospitals overwhelmed by patients.
President Donald Trump, who has indicated he will sign the
bill, said late Thursday that he may need to extend social
distancing guidelines to early summer.
Oil prices extended a tentative rebound from a price
collapse this week that pushed U.S. crude futures into negative
for the first time ever, helped by producers such as Kuwait
saying they would move to cut output. O/R
Brent crude LCOc1 was up 24 cents, or 1.1%, at $21.57,
after rising more than $1 earlier and jumping 5% on Thursday.
U.S. oil CLc1 was up 38 cents, or 2.3%, at $16.88 a barrel,
having surged 20% in the previous session.
But the outlook remains dim because global energy demand has
evaporated due to business closures and travel curbs aimed at
slowing the pandemic. In addition, some countries are running
out of space to store the crude oil that they are not using.
EU leaders' agreement on the emergency fund helped lift
Italian government bond yields. Short-dated Italian bond yields
jumped 12 basis points IT2YT=RR IT5YT=RR . Italy's 10-year
bond yield was up 7 bps at 2.08% IT10YT=RR and the
closely-watched Italian/German 10-year bond yield gap was 14 bps
wider from late Thursday levels at around 252 bps, erasing
Thursday's narrowing DE10IT10=RR . L5N2CC1PK
Set for its biggest weekly rise since early April, the U.S.
dollar gained as the euro fell 0.4% against the greenback
EUR=EBS to a one-month low at $1.07275 and a three-year low
versus the yen at 115.55 yen EURJPY=EBS .