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(Updates through midday U.S. trading)
By David Randall
NEW YORK, March 23 (Reuters) - World equity benchmarks and
oil prices drifted lower on Tuesday while safe-haven assets
gained as an extended economic lockdown in Germany, and U.S. and
European sanctions on China, curbed risk appetite worldwide.
Rising concerns over a third wave of the coronavirus
pandemic amid slow vaccine rollouts in Europe hurt oil and
travel companies as investors priced in a longer road to
economic recovery.
Germany extended its lockdown until April 18, and Chancellor
Angela Merkel urged citizens to stay at home for five days over
the Easter holidays.
U.S. crude fell 3.96% to $59.12 per barrel and Brent
was at $62.23, down 3.7% on the day.
Travel-related stocks fell as much as 4%.
"Global travel is still looking like it could be a while
away," said Matt Stanley, a fuel broker at Star Fuels in Dubai,
adding that a second-half recovery in oil demand looked doubtful
as lockdowns remain the order of the day.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe shed
0.35% following broad declines in Europe and Asia.
In midday trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial
Average fell 48.55 points, or 0.15%, to 32,682.65, the
S&P 500 lost 0.13 point to 3,940.46 and the Nasdaq
Composite dropped 33.46 points, or 0.25%, to 13,344.08.
Benchmark 10 year Treasury rose 10/32 in price to yield
1.6488%, from 1.682% late on Monday, ahead of midday
Congressional testimony by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell
and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
In remarks prepared before the hearing, Powell said the U.S.
economic recovery had progressed "more quickly than generally
expected".
"The FOMC last week laid out pretty clearly what the Fed's
view is with regard to rates ... the next thing that markets
will focus on is maybe getting some details from Yellen with
regard to further infrastructure investment," said Alex Wolf,
head of investment strategy for Asia at J.P. Morgan Private
Bank, referring to a statement from the Federal Open Market
Committee.
The dollar index, tracking it against a basket of
major currencies, rose 0.487%, with the euro down 0.58%
to $1.1862.
Adding to market concerns were human rights sanctions on
China imposed by the United States, Europe and Britain that
prompted retaliatory sanctions from Beijing.
Worries over the pace of the recovery from the pandemic were
also heightened after a U.S. health agency said the AstraZeneca
Plc vaccine developed with Oxford University may have
included outdated information in its data.
Spot gold dropped 0.7% to $1,727.21 an ounce.
(Reporting by David Randall. Editing by Jane Merriman and
Bernadette Baum)
