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(Adds oil, gold settlement prices)
* AstraZeneca, Pfizer vaccine news lifts equities
* UK, US, Japan central banks meet this week
* Japan's Suga wins ruling party leadership race
* UK parliament to vote on plan to break Brexit divorce
treaty
* Graphic: 2020 asset performance http://tmsnrt.rs/2yaDPgn
* Graphic: World FX rates in 2020 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, Sept 14 (Reuters) - The dollar weakened and world
stock markets rose on Monday on encouraging signs of progress in
developing a COVID-19 vaccine, while several multi-billion
dollar deals also help lift the spirit of investors after last
week's downdraft.
Gold jumped almost 1% as the dollar slid and bond yields
were stable as investors gauge how the U.S. Federal Reserve will
put its new approach to monetary policy into practice and keep
its dovish stance at this week's policy meeting.
Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE on Saturday
proposed expanding their Phase 3 pivotal COVID-19 vaccine trial
to about 44,000 participants, while increasing the diversity of
the trial population.
Drugmaker AstraZeneca said over the weekend it has
resumed British clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine, one of
the most advanced in development, after getting the green light
from safety watchdogs.
"The market reacts positively to any vaccine news," said Tim
Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in
New York. "We're going to see a lot more vaccines come out, and
that is what really is helping the markets."
The World Health Organization reported a record one-day
increase in global coronavirus cases on Sunday, with the total
rising by 307,930 in 24 hours. The biggest increases were from
India, the United States and Brazil.
"There is still some caution in markets because U.S. virus
numbers appear to be picking up again in some states," said
Seema Shah, chief strategist at Principal Global Investors.
"The vaccine news is positive but there is a lot of
skepticism about when they become widely adopted," Shah said.
Plans by Nvidia Corp to buy UK-based chip designer
Arm from Japan's SoftBank Group Corp for as much as $40
billion, a deal expected to reshape the global semiconductor
landscape, also drove sentiment. Nvidia shares,
which have more than doubled this year, added 5.1%.
Oracle surged 4.9% as the cloud services company
said it would team up with China's ByteDance to keep TikTok
operating in the United States, beating Microsoft Corp
in a deal structured as a partnership rather than an outright
sale.
MSCI's benchmark for global equity markets
rose 1.17% to 572.56. In Europe, the broad FTSEurofirst 300
index edged up 0.07% to 1,429 as losses in the energy
sector offset surging travel and technology stocks that were
boosted by the vaccine news.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose
1.21%, the S&P 500 gained 1.34% and the Nasdaq Composite
added 1.75%.
U.S. stocks had notched two straight weeks of losses as
investors sold the technology shares that fueled the benchmark
S&P 500 and Nasdaq to record highs in a dramatic recovery from
March lows spawned by the pandemic-induced downturn.
Overnight in Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific
shares outside Japan rose 0.9% to its highest in
almost a week. Japan's Nikkei firmed 0.7% after Chief
Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga won a landslide victory in a
ruling party leadership election, paving the way for him to
succeed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The Fed starts a two-day policy meeting on Tuesday, the
first since unveiling a landmark shift to a more tolerant stance
on inflation in August. The Bank of Japan and the Bank of
England announce their respective policy decisions on Thursday.
Sterling, which has been hurt by renewed Brexit turmoil,
firmed before a vote on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's
plan to break international law by breaching parts of the Brexit
divorce treaty with the European Union.
Sterling was last trading at $1.2853, up 0.47% on the
day, while the dollar index fell 0.227%.
The euro was up 0.15% to $1.1863, and the Japanese
yen strengthened 0.49% versus the greenback at 105.70 per
dollar.
Turkey's lira set a record low against the U.S. dollar
and its dollar bonds came under pressure after Moody's
cut the country's sovereign rating and warned of the risk of a
balance of payment crisis.
Oil prices slipped slightly on concerns about a stalled
global economic recovery as Libya is poised to resume
production, and failed to get support from an impending storm
that has disrupted U.S. oil output.
Brent crude futures settled down 22 cents at $39.61
a barrel. U.S. crude futures fell 7 cents to settle at
$37.26 a barrel.
U.S. gold futures settled up 0.8% at $1,963.70 an
ounce.
(Reporting by Herb Lash; additional reproting by Dhara
Ranasinghe; Editing by Dan Grebler and Nick Zieminski)
