* Stocks rise on upbeat U.S., European corporate earnings
* Australian dollar hit fresh 29-year high agasint dollar
* Commodities firm on weak dollar, improve risk appetite
* Spanish 10-yr bond yield steady ahead of debt auction
By Dominic Lau
LONDON, April 20 (Reuters) - Upbeat earnings from companies
including chip maker Intel lifted stocks and boosted appetite
for riskier assets on Wednesday, driving commodities higher and
the Australian dollar to a 29-year high versus the dollar.
The strong showing in this quarterly earnings season so far
has helped offset concerns of government debt problems on both
sides of the Atlantic after Standard & Poor's on Monday cut the
outlook on the United States to negative.
World equities measured by MSCI All-Country World Index
<.MIWD00000PUS> advanced 0.9 percent, extending the previous
session's 0.5 percent rise and further recovering from Monday's
1.6 percent loss.
Emerging market stocks <.MSCIEF> climbed 1.6 percent,
catching up further with the MSCI All-Country World Index after
sharply underperforming the global gauge earlier this year on
concerns over high inflation in emerging economies.
"While S&P grabbed some headlines earlier in the week, on a
future event that may or may not happen, it seems things on the
ground are coming up pretty good," said Philip Isherwood,
European equities strategist at Evolution Securities.
"The economic and corporate message is good. There is
nothing to fear but fear itself."
Intel <INTC.O> posted better-than-expected sales and
forecast quarterly revenues well above Wall Street's estimates,
while world's biggest comestics group L'Oreal <OREP.PA> and
carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen <PEUP.PA> also came in with robust
figures.
Of the 45 S&P 500 <.SPX> companies that have reported
first-quarter earnings so far, 79 percent of them have either
beaten or met market expectations and the remainder came in
below forecasts, data from Thomson Reuters StarMine showed.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <> rose 1.2 percent,
while Europe's tech stocks <.SX8P> put on 2 percent.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei average <> rose 1.8 percent to
snap a three-day losing run, also boosted by Intel's results.
POSITIVE DISTRACTION
The improvement in sentiment also boosted the euro and high
yielding currencies, such as the Australian dollar <AUD=D4>,
which was up 0.7 percent at $1.0599 after hitting a fresh
29-year high of $1.0609.
"Investor focus is on the earnings season in the U.S. and
this is key in driving growth expectations and pushing
stockmarkets higher. This keeps focus away from the euro zone
periphery right now," said Manuel Oliveri, currency strategist
at UBS in Zurich.
The euro <EUR=> rose 0.6 percent to $1.4422, while the
dollar <.DXY> fell 0.4 percent against a basket of currencies.
The soft dollar added to the boost for commodities, with
copper <CMCU3> up 1.1 percent and Brent crude <LCOc1> up 0.5
percent to just below $122 a barrel after dropping 1.7 percent
in the previous two sessions.
Gold <XAU=> breached $1,500 an ounce for the first time and
silver hit a 31-year high, supported by a weak dollar and
concerns over the euro zone sovereign debt crisis.
Spain will issue up to 3.5 billion euros of 10- and 13-year
paper later in the day after yields for the euro zone states
struggling with high debt surged this week on the back of
increasing speculation Greece will move to restructure its debt.
Yields on 10-year Spanish government bonds <ES10YT=TWEB>
were steady at 5.507 percent.
(Additional reporting by Brian Gorman, Neal Armstrong and
Kirsten Donovan; editing by Patrick Graham)
