LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Stocks on the Continent were rising again, helped by news of a sweep in southern US states by moderate Democratic candidate Joe Biden in the 'Super Tuesday' primaries, reviving his bid to lead the party in the presidential elections in November.
Gains were being made even as Italy announced the closure of all schools and universities in the country to help brake the advance of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

In Germany meanwhile, the caseload of new virus infections jumped by more than a fifth overnight to reach 240, while in France and Switzerland banned all large gatherings.

The case count in Italy meanwhile was running at over 2,500 with 79 fatalities reported thus far.

By 1258 GMT, the pan-European Stoxx 600 was adding 1.78% to 387.91, alongside a 1.53% rise on the German Dax to 12,168.90 while the Cac-40 was ahead by 1.50% at 5,473.46.

Euro/dollar meanwhile was down 0.51% to 1.11124.

Front month Brent crude oil futures were ahead 1.48% to $52.64 a barrel on the ICE amid reports that Saudi was pushing OPEC+ to cut output by 1.0m barrels a day.

S&P 500 futures were pointing to 2% gains at the opening bell on Wall Street.

In the background, investors were still mulling the US central bank's, the Federal Reserve, decision to carry out an emergency rate cut the day before, with analysts at SP Angel describing it as a "bold move to help protect US businesses and the US economy".

"We expect the US, China, Germany and others to follow with new infrastructure stimulus to support the economy and keep businesses running," they added.

Shares of Eurofins Scientific were bounding back towards their five-year highs and pacing gains on the Stoxx 600 leaderboard after the food and drugs testing group reported a 20.7% jump in full-year 2019 sales to reach €4.56bn, versus management's own target for €4.5bn.

Stock in Internet of Things specialist Dialog Semiconductor was also advancing after the company told shareholders to expect a return to normal operating conditions in China in the second quarter.

So too was France's Elis SA, which rents gear for healthcare workers.

Overnight, the 43rd situation update from the World Health Organisation revealed a drop in the number of confirmed new coronavirus cases in China as of 0900 GMT on 3 March to 130 after 206 were registered the day before.

In a research report sent to clients, analysts at JP Morgan predicted that "sufficient policy support" would offset the loss of demand in the first half of 2020 due to the virus.

Their peers at Rabobank however were expected the Fed to be forced to lower rates to zero by June with quantitative easing set to follow in the second half of the year.

Back on the Continent, the headline year-on-year rate of gains in euro area consumer prices declined from 1.4% for January to 1.2% in February, as expected.

Still ahead for later in the session, at 1315 GMT consultancy ADP was due to release its US private sector payrolls report for February, followed by the US ISM institute's services sector activity gauge for that same month.

Retail sales data for the euro area came in ahead of forecasts, with figures for January revealing a 1.7% year-on-year increase (consensus: 1.1%).

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