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By Rodrigo Campos and Koh Gui Qing
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks across the globe fell on Friday after a historic three-day run-up, as skittish investors kept indices on track for their worst monthly and quarterly performances since 2008, while the dollar fell by the most in any week since 2009.
Shares on Wall Street ended near Friday's lows and the dollar fell further after the U.S. House of Representatives, as expected, approved a $2.2 trillion stimulus package, the largest in U.S. history. After the markets closed, President Donald Trump signed the bill into law.
The dollar's slump was seen partly as a sign that central bankers have been successful in easing stress in the money markets.
Market volatility is expected to persist as the coronavirus pandemic that triggered closures in economies worldwide remains very much a threat.
The United States surpassed two grim milestones as virus-related deaths soared past 1,200 and it became the world leader in confirmed cases. Worldwide, confirmed cases rose above 551,000 with nearly 25,000 deaths.
The stimulus "is not necessarily enough to make people say, 'I've got to run out and buy stocks,'" said Rick Meckler, a partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Jersey. "That's going to take more time."
Uncertainty over the overall human and economic toll was reflected in financial markets. MSCI's gauge of global stocks rallied by the most in any week since December 2008, but is also poised for its largest month- and quarter- drops since 2008, during the height of the financial crisis.
Nervous investors supported demand for gold, whose prices jumped by the most in any week since 2008 despite a Friday decline.
The coronavirus infection rate is driving much of the market at a time of great uncertainty, said Yousef Abbasi, global market strategist at INTL FCStone Financial Inc in New York.
"My big hang-up here is when the curve does start to flatten, that doesn't mean we can return to normal human and economic behavior," he said.
"If we do return to normal human and economic behavior, we risk the chance the curve goes parabolic again. Just from the perspective of how long this potentially can last, there's still a great deal of uncertainty."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 915.39 points, or 4.06%, to 21,636.78, the S&P 500 lost 88.6 points, or 3.37%, to 2,541.47 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 295.16 points, or 3.79%, to 7,502.38.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index lost 3.26%, and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe shed 2.39%. Emerging market stocks lost 1.03%.