* Equities edge up
* Italian bond yields maintain multi-week lows
* Oil gains
* Graphic: World FX rates in 2020 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
By Tom Arnold and Tom Westbrook
LONDON/SINGAPORE May 20 (Reuters) - Global stocks rose on Wednesday as investors regained hopes of recovery from a coronavirus-fuelled recession, while oil prices also strengthened.
Italian bonds remained at their multi-week lows, continuing to gain from a Franco-German plan for a 500 billion-euro coronavirus recovery fund, ignoring a hawkish counter-proposal in the works. STOXX 600 index .STOXX recovered from earlier losses to add 0.2%. The blue-chip FTSE 100 .FTSE gained 0.3%. The world stock index .MIWD00000PUS was 0.2% stronger, but still short of its highest level since March 9, reached on Tuesday.
"We are in one of those situations where if there's no bad news, the path of least resistance is for equities to move higher," said James Athey, investment director, Aberdeen Standard Investments."
Wall Street ended Tuesday lower after medical news website STAT cast doubt on a Moderna Inc MRNA.O COVID-19 vaccine trial. The report said the trial results, which had rallied global stocks this week, lacked detail. of 223 fund managers surveyed by Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) reckon recent gains are a bear-market rally.
S&P 500 futures ESc1 were last up 1.1%. Oil gained and gold XAU= rose to $1,748.34 per ounce. GOL/
Italy's 10-year bond yield was holding near five-and-a-half-week lows hit following the recovery fund announcement IT10YT=RR . The gap with Germany's 10-year yield was at 210 basis points, close to Tuesday's five-week lows. L8N2D21OU
The U.S. dollar extended falls, sinking 0.3% to a three-week low. The euro edged up 0.2% to $1.0960 EUR=EBS , near a two-week peak of $1.09755 reached on Tuesday, supported by the Franco-German proposal for recovery fund. New Zealand central bank chief Adrian Orr backtracked a little from the possibility of negative rates, a prospect he had flagged just days before. That helped support the kiwi dollar NZD=D3 . about the outlook held back commodity prices. Japanese business confidence slumped to a decade low as the economy entered recession. Australian retail sales suffered their steepest-ever decline in April. the U.S. economy won't recover its lost ground until sometime after next year, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said on Tuesday. crude futures LCOc1 were at $35.51 per barrel, up 2.5%. U.S. crude CLc1 was 2.3% higher at $32.69 a barrel on signs of improving demand and a drawdown in U.S. crude inventories. O/R
"While countries have started to relax restrictions on economic and social activities, economies will not return to where things were before the outbreak," said strategists at Singapore's DBS bank in a note.
"Geopolitical tensions, especially between the U.S. and China, have also returned and are likely to intensify into the U.S. elections in November."
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Tracking the spread of the novel coronavirus
https://graphics.reuters.com/CHINA-HEALTH-MAP/0100B59S39E/index.html
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