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Asian shares jumped on Tuesday and oil extended gains on optimism the global economy would recover quickly while the euro hovered near a two-week top.

Following  a successful early-stage trial of a COVID-19 vaccine.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside of Japan rose 1.5 per cent to two-week highs.

Australia’s benchmark index and Hong Kong’s Hang Sang were the lead gainers, up by two per cent each, South Korea added 1.8 per cent while China’s blue-chip index climbed 0.8 per cent.

Japan’s Nikkei added two per cent to the highest since early March.

The gains followed a rally on Wall Street overnight after data from Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine, the first to be tested in the U.S., showed it produced protective antibodies in a small group of healthy volunteers.

The positive early test results boosted sentiment as investors wagered on a faster-than-expected economic recovery.

Analysts, for now, expect a steep contraction in world growth with the outlook for 2021 still uncertain with no approved treatments or vaccines for COVID-19 currently.

Experts predict a safe and effective vaccine could take 12 to 18 months to develop.

On Wall Street overnight, the benchmark S&P 500 posted its biggest one-day percentage gain in almost six weeks, gaining 3.15 per cent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 3.85 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite added 2.44 per cent.

“It may be the case that central bank liquidity is chloroforming markets to overlook risks such as overleveraged corporate and government balance sheets, growing COVID-19 case numbers, growth holes and a slow recovery path,’’ analysts at Perpetual wrote in a note.

E-minis for the S&P 500 was off 0.2 per cent in Asian trading.

The vaccine optimism sent treasury yields surging overnight as investors dumped bonds, while gold came off its peak.

Spot prices were last up 0.4 per cent $1,739.2 an ounce.

There was good news in Europe too after France and Germany called for the creation of a 500 billion euro ($543 billion) Recovery Fund, able to offer grants to the countries and regions hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis.

The euro hovered near a two-week top at $1.0907.

The British pound was up 0.1 per cent at $1.2201.

The risk-sensitive Australian and New Zealand dollars were also up slightly.

The safe-haven yen eased on the greenback to be last at 107.40 per dollar.

“Business survey data for the U.S. improved to merely terrible in May, up from truly awful in April,’’ JP Morgan Chase economists said in a note on Tuesday.

“But collectively, these data support our forecast that monthly activity measures from May onward should, in general, start to look better as restrictions are gradually eased.’’

Oil prices jumped to their highest in over two months, as the easing of global lockdowns boosted hopes of economic activity and as producers appeared to be following through with planned production cuts.

Brent crude was last up 1.24 per cent, or 43 cents, at $35.21.

U.S. crude jumped 2.7 per cent, or 87 cents, to $32.69.

Source:- Reuters

The European Union-backed the World Health Organisation and multilateral efforts to fight the coronavirus on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump threatened to quit the global agency.

“This is the time for solidarity, not the time for finger-pointing or for undermining multilateral cooperation,” European foreign affairs spokeswoman Virginie Battu-Henriksson told reporters.

The EU has sponsored a motion at Tuesday’s session of the WHO’s annual assembly to urge an “impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation” of the international response to the pandemic.

And the spokeswoman said: “The European Union backs the WHO in its efforts to contain and mitigate the COVID-19 outbreak and has already provided additional funding to support these efforts.”

Not for the first time, this puts Brussels in opposition to Washington, where Trump has accused the UN health agency of being too close to China and of being slow to react to the COVID-19 outbreak.

On Monday, the US leader — who has already frozen US funding for the WHO — wrote its director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to lay out the charges and threaten to pull out.

READ ALSO: Coronavirus: Trump Suspends Travel From Europe To US

“They’re a puppet of China, they’re China-centric to put it nicer,” he explained.

Beijing has furiously denied the US allegations that it played down the threat and Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated at the World Health Assembly that his nation had been “transparent” throughout the crisis.

Brussels is backing an independent inquiry into how the epidemic erupted and spread, but has tried to lead an international, multilateral response to the crisis and raise funds for vaccine research.

AFP