* World stocks just off year highs
* Wall Street set for losses
* Euro falls on Greece worries
By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent
LONDON, April 15 (Reuters) - World stocks slipped off year
highs on Thursday as Wall Street looked set for a poor start
despite strong growth in China and upbeat corporate earnings.
Greece's debt crisis continued to simmer, knocking the euro
down close to 1 percent against the dollar and yen.
MSCI's all-country world stock index was down slightly
<.MIWD00000PUS>, but still at Sept. 2008 levels. The index is up
around 6 percent this year.
China's economic growth quickened in the first quarter to
11.9 percent year-on-year, the fastest pace since 2007,
benefiting from a low base of comparison last year and the
momentum imparted by massive government stimulus.
[]
At the same time, investors are being buoyed by robust
earnings announcements on Wall Street.
JPMorgan <JPM.N> reported quarterly profit that beat
forecasts, as investment banking earnings gained and loan losses
slowed. Tech bellwether Intel Corp <INTC.O> also posted
better-than-expected results.
But early ardour cooled slightly.
"There's been a pause for breath, with some stocks having
been overbought in the rally," said Colin McLean, managing
director at fund manager SVM, in Edinburgh.
"There's still some concern about Greece, and southern
Europe," he said.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <> was up 0.2
percent for a year to date gain of nearly 6 percent. Japan's
Nikkei <> earlier closed up 0.6 percent.
Japan has generally been outperforming this year. The Nikkei
is up close to 7 percent and the broader TOPIX <> has
gained more than 10 percent since the end of 2009.
GREEK FEAR
The euro fell against the dollar and the yen as costs rose
to insure against a Greek debt default.
"Greek/German spreads are pushing around 400 basis points,"
said Jeremy Stretch, strategist at Rabobank in London.
"Investors may be shy of taking on risk, and so we're seeing
selling in euro/dollar."
Five-year Greek credit default swap prices exceeded a record
closing high of 444 basis points hit a week ago, before euro
zone members agreed a standby aid package to help Athens service
its mounting debt.
The yield spread between Greek and German government bonds
also widened.
The euro <EUR=> was down 0.9 percent on the day at $1.3534
and at 126.07 yen <EURJPY=>, with traders citing selling by U.S.
investment banks.
Euro zone government bonds yields were lower.
(Additional reporting by Naomi Tajutsu and Brian Gorman;
Editing by Toby Chopra))
