(Adds close of U.S. markets)
* Wall Street's main indices climb more than 1%
* AstraZeneca, Pfizer vaccine news spurs equities
* Britain, U.S., Japan central banks meet this week
* 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 rallied on Monday on encouraging signs of progress
in developing a COVID-19 vaccine, while several multi-billion
dollar deals also helped lift the spirit of investors after the
downdraft in the past two weeks.
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 COVID-19 vaccine trial to about
44,000 participants, while increasing the diversity of the trial
population.
Drugmaker AstraZeneca also said on Saturday 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.
Enrollment of new patients and other trial procedures for
AstraZeneca's pivotal U.S. trial were being rescheduled until at
least midweek and it was not clear how long it would take for a
U.S. investigators to complete a probe, sources told Reuters.
"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 British-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
5.8%.
Oracle surged 4.3% 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 572.57. 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
1.18%, the S&P 500 gained 1.27% and the Nasdaq Composite
added 1.87% after plunging 10% into corrective territory
on Friday from a record closing high on Sept. 2.
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 $1.2855, up 0.48% on the
day, while the dollar index fell 0.22%.
The euro was up 0.15% to $1.1863, and the Japanese
yen strengthened 0.48% 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.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose 0.7 basis
points to 0.6739%.
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, Nick Zieminski and Will
Dunham)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
