World stocks jump on lull in trade tensions, euro gets summit boost

By Helen Reid

LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks enjoyed a strong bounce on Friday as a recovery in Asian markets spread to European shares after a turbulent week of selling as investors' fears of higher barriers to trade came closer to becoming reality.

MSCI's index of world stocks rose 0.5 percent by 0800 GMT, its strongest gain in three weeks, but its second quarter was still set to be in the red as investors priced in U.S. tariffs that are set to be implemented next week.

The U.S. administration is due to activate tariffs on Chinese goods worth $34 billion on July 6, which is expected to prompt a tit-for-tat response from Beijing.

European stocks rallied strongly, with the pan-European STOXX 600 up 1.2 percent and Germany's trade-sensitive DAX up 1.5 percent.

But trade wars have already mauled assets from the Chinese yuan to European autos stocks, and wiped $1.75 trillion off world stocks' market capitalization since June 12.

The euro jumped after leaders at an EU summit reached an agreement on migration, rising 0.5 percent to $1.1622 at 0800 GMT.

"The outcome of the summit tells us something about the severity of the situation," said Jan von Gerich, chief analyst at Nordea in Helsinki.

"I'm not confident it will solve the underlying issues but there was a fear that the summit would fail and we could get a collapse of the German government, so that risk premium is being priced out," he said.

STOCKS GAIN, YUAN PAIN

While Asian stocks rose, the Chinese yuan suffered its worst month on record, losing 3 percent against the dollar in June as investors pulled money from a market likely to suffer from higher barriers to trade.

The Chinese yuan traded as low as 6.6441 to the dollar on Friday, its lowest since November. It traded at 6.6211 to the dollar around 0800 GMT.

Chinese shares rebounded from two-year lows, helped by news that Beijing would ease foreign investment curbs on sectors including banking, automobiles, heavy industry and agriculture.

But despite Friday's gains, the CSI300 and Shanghai Composite are the world's worst-performing major indexes this year.

In strong contrast to the yuan, the U.S. dollar was set for its strongest quarterly gains since Q4 2016, helped by the U.S. Federal Reserve's move to raise interest rates in June, and expectations of further hikes this year.

The dollar index edged down 0.5 percent to 94.924, and was up 0.1 percent against the yen at 110.65.

European bonds diverged, with the EU Summit migration agreement pushing Germany's Bund yields up while Italian 10-year government bond yields fell to a one-week low.

The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes rose to 2.8547 percent and the yield curve widened slightly to 33.3 basis points.

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Many investors see its flattening to record lows as a sign recession may be around the corner.

Intensifying trade tariff fears contrasted with a still strong picture of the global economy and robust company earnings growth.

"Our view for this year has been that asset markets would likely underperform the real economy as peaking growth momentum, tighter financial conditions, higher inflation and more volatility would act as a drag on valuations even as EPS trends remain solid," said Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) analysts, cutting their index targets for MSCI Europe on Thursday.

Oil prices also came under pressure from trade frictions, falling despite tight crude market conditions that had pushed prices to three-and-a-half-year highs on Thursday.

U.S. crude was 0.4 percent lower at $73.19 a barrel. Brent crude rose 0.2 percent to $78.01 per barrel.

Gold remained near 6 1/2 month lows, weighed down by trade worries, interest rate expectations and the strong dollar.

Spot gold traded up 0.2 percent at $1250.78 per ounce, but was still headed for its worst monthly performance since November 2016. (GOL)