GLOBAL MARKETS-World stocks shaky, yen resumes climb

                                
   * Gloomy U.S. outlook haunts stocks
                                
 * Dollar slips vs yen as BOJ move limited
                                
 * M&A activity underpins equity markets
 (Adds U.S. trading, changes dateline, previous LONDON)
                                
 By Al Yoon
                                
 NEW YORK, Aug 30 (Reuters) - World stocks wavered on Monday
on skepticism that governments can cushion a slippage in global
growth, while the yen resumed its rally as Japan refrained from
aggressive action to curb the currency's rise.
                                
 Mergers and acquisitions added some buoyancy to global
stock indices, however.
                                
 A U.S. report on consumer spending offered hope for the
largest contributor to the nation's gross domestic product but
failed to reverse a bearish tone set by a string of other data
suggesting the economy is slowing. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke last week detailed a struggling economy, even as he
assured markets that the central bank could provide stimulus if
needed.
                                
 "I don't see any comfort in these words," said Koen De
Leus, economist at KBC Securities.
                                
 "They have done everything to save the economy, but it is
faltering again," he said. "The U.S. data are going to be
disappointing and the stock market is likely to head lower in
the next one to two months because of the grim economic
outlook."
                                
 Gloomy reports on U.S. gross domestic product and housing
have raised fears the economy could slip back into a recession
or face a lengthy period of growth too slow to make much of a
dent in the country's 9.5 percent unemployment rate.
                                
 Consumer spending rose at the strongest pace in four months
in July, supported by a small rise in incomes that offered hope
consumers were contributing to a modest recovery. For details,
see [ID:nN30166431].
                                
 Early in New York, the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI>
was down 48.06 points, or 0.47 percent, at 10,102.59. The
Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was down 4.88 points, or
0.46 percent, at 1,059.71. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC>
was down 9.76 points, or 0.45 percent, at 2,143.87.
                                
 Expectations of increased mergers and acquisitions have
been buoying stock markets in recent days as the activity often
spurs stock purchases.
                                
 France's Sanofi-Aventis SA <SASY.PA> disclosed a cash offer
of $18.5 billion, or $69 per share, for Genzyme Corp <GENZ.O>
after failing to start merger talks with the U.S. biotechnology
company. Genzyme's board rejected the proposal. [ID:nN29251304]
and [ID:nN30166711]
                                
 Genzyme rose 3.7 percent to $70.13, and U.S.-listed shares
of Sanofi <SNY.N> rose 0.2 percent to $28.98.
                                
 "There is a lot of cash still out there for a lot of these
companies, and they need to start using it," said Joe Saluzzi,
co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey.
"It makes sense for them to see if they can get some value."
                                
 Intel Corp <INTC.O> agreed to buy the wireless unit of
German chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG <IFXGn.DE> for $1.4
billion, enabling the U.S. chipmaker to boost its presence in
the smartphone market. Intel shed 2 percent to
$18.01.[ID:nLDE67T04E]
                                
 Dell Inc <DELL.O> said it was assessing its bid for data
storage company 3PAR Inc <PAR.N> after 3PAR's board called
Hewlett-Packard Co's <HPQ.N> $2 billion offer a "superior
proposal." [ID:nN29138050]
                                
 Separately, HP authorized an additional $10 billion for
share repurchases. HP gained 2.9 percent to $39.10.
[ID:nASA00OZ0].
                                
 MSCI's all-country world stock index <.MIWD00000PUS> and
the Thomson Reuters global stock index <.TRXFLDGLPU> both
gained around 0.2 percent. MSCI's emerging market sub-index
<.MSCIEF> gained 0.5 percent.
                                
 In Europe, equities trading was subdued because of a
holiday in Britain.
                                
 Japanese stocks closed up nearly 1.8 percent, but only
after paring strong gains when the Bank of Japan made minor
tweaks in policy, disappointing markets looking for more
aggressive action against deflation. The yen rose broadly.
                                
 Investors saw the moves as a symbolic gesture that will do
little to halt the currency's climb, putting the onus on the
Japanese government to act if the yen continues to rally.
                                
 The yen hit the day's high against the dollar and the euro
after Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said after
meeting Prime Minister Naoto Kan that Kan had not made any
requests on the central bank's monetary policy.
                                
 The dollar fell 0.5 percent against the yen <JPY=> at 84.75
yen, close to a session low of 84.53 yen.
                                
 The dollar rose 0.1 percent against a basket of currencies
<.DXY>. The euro fell 0.5 percent to $1.2694.
                                
 U.S. Treasury debt prices rose as traders clawed back some
of Friday's sharp losses, when Fed Chairman Bernanke signaled
the U.S. central bank was not on the verge of a new round of
bond buying.
                                
 Yields on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes <US10YT=RR>declined 0.05 percentage point to 2.59 percent.
 (Additional reporting by Jeremy Gaunt, Atul Prakash, Brian
Gorman and Jessica Mortimer in London and Chuck Mikolajczak and
Chris Reese in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler)