Stocks head for best month on record ahead of ECB

World stocks headed for their best month on record on Thursday, as encouraging early results from a COVID-19 treatment trial and expectations of more European Central Bank (ECB) stimulus later in the day helped ease the pain of February and March.

Europe saw a cautious start with oil firm Shell’s first dividend cut in 80 years, a record drop in French first quarter GDP and surge in German unemployment all giving traders an excuse for some pre-ECB profit taking.

Not that it mattered. Easing coronavirus worries mean the STOXX 600 is up more than 25% over the last six weeks. April will be Europe’s best month since 2009 and for MSCI’s World Index, it could be best since it started in the late 1980s.

A 1.4% rise in MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares, excluding Japan, kept it tracking towards a weekly gain of more than 5%, its best in three weeks.

Optimism was also driven by positive partial results from a trial of Gilead’s antiviral drug remdesivir, which suggested it could help speed recovery from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.

Japan’s Nikkei .N225 jumped 2.8% to a seven-week high and Australia’s ASX 200 rose 2.7%, with the mood further supported by South Korea reporting no new domestic coronavirus cases for the first time since its Feb. 29 peak.

More caution was evident in other asset classes, with the U.S. dollar steady against most of the other major currencies and German Bund yields – which move inverse to price – dipping to a one-month low ahead of the expected ECB moves.

Partial results from the 1,063-patient U.S. government trial of Gilead’s remdesivir were hailed as “highly significant” by the top U.S. infectious disease official, Anthony Fauci. They showed hospitalised COVID-19 patients given the drug recovered in 11 days, compared with 15 days for patients given a placebo, and a slightly lower death rate. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasuries stayed parked at 0.6170%, after the U.S. Federal Reserve left interest rates near zero and gave no indication of lifting them any time soon.

The dollar held its ground against the resurgent Australian dollar for the first time in a week and barely budged against the euro EUR= at $1.0875. Gold was a touch higher at $1,715 per ounce, though things were still wild in oil markets. Brent crude and U.S. crude futures each rose about $1.7 – or 7% – a barrel amid optimism that a storage squeeze is not as bad as first feared, and that demand for fuel may soon return.

Stocks head for best month on record ahead of ECB, Reuters, Apr 30