By Xie Yu

Global markets rose on Monday, with several stock indexes in the Asia-Pacific region adding more than 2% and S&P 500 futures rising, suggesting U.S. markets could also gain ground later in the day.

By late morning in Hong Kong, Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index had gained 2.9%. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 2.6%, and South Korea's Kospi Composite advanced 2.2%. The local benchmark Hang Seng Index rose 1%

E-mini S&P 500 futures rose 3%. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose to 0.624%, up from 0.587% on Friday. Yields move in the opposite direction from bond prices.

On Sunday, New York reported its first one-day decline in deaths caused by the new coronavirus, although Gov. Andrew Cuomo said it was too early to understand the significance of that number. New York is the U.S. state with the most confirmed cases.

Some daily death tolls for Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, fell in Western Europe, with Italy reporting the fewest deaths in more than two weeks. France reported the lowest number in five days and Spain's tally fell for three days in a row.

"A sense of eagerness to see a turn in the spread of the virus and economic growth is driving the market today," said Govinda Finn, an economist at Aberdeen Standard Investments. However, Mr. Finn added: "I wouldn't have massive confidence that we are there yet, so I think the rally probably won't last long."

Markets in mainland China were closed for a holiday.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, fell 2.4% to $33.29 a barrel.

A 23-nation alliance led by Saudi Arabia and Russia was due to debate world-wide production cuts of 10 million barrels a day on Monday and had hoped to include the U.S. as the coronavirus outbreak continues to erode oil demand. But the virtual meeting was delayed after Saudi Arabia and Russia swapped barbs and the U.S. failed to outline production cuts of its own.

Major U.S. indexes registered modest declines last week, while bonds continued to rally. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell for a third straight week, as investors rushed into safer assets.

Write to Xie Yu at Yu.Xie@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 06, 2020 00:47 ET (04:47 GMT)

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