* US stocks up on earnings, Dow sees best month since Dec
* U.S. dollar index <.DXY> at 3-year low
* Euro zone inflation above expectations, bolstering euro
* Oil near 31-year peak, gold at all-time high
(Updates with prices)
By Barani Krishnan
NEW YORK, April 29 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were steady
early Friday, with the Dow Jones industrial average headed for
its best month since December, while the dollar hit 3-year lows
against a basket of major currencies.
Benchmark crude oil prices <LCOc1> were above $125 barrel
in London, near 31-month highs, as the tumbling dollar and
violence in North Africa and the Middle East outweighed
concerns about slowing U.S. economic growth. []
U.S. gold futures <GCM1> hit record peaks for a ninth time
in the last 10 sessions, reaching near $1,546 an ounce. []
[]
Robust U.S. corporate earnings, ample liquidity from the
Federal Reserve, and the prospect of ultra-low interest rates
for the rest of the year have driven stock prices higher
recently, pushing the Nasdaq stock index to a 10-year high and
the S&P 500 index up over 8.0 percent this year.
"There is a big bias towards the market going up and we've
seen this through good news and what we would consider bad
news," said Kim Caughey Forrest, senior equity research analyst
at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.
"The market kind of shrugs it all off and keeps marching
higher."
U.S. stocks were trading mixed midsession on Friday at
10:53. The Dow Jones industrial average <> was up 38.79
points, or 0.30 percent, at 12,802.10. The Standard & Poor's
500 Index <.SPX> was up 0.64 points, or 0.05 percent, at
1,361.12. The Nasdaq Composite Index <> was down 3.42
points, or 0.12 percent, at 2,869.11.
European shares gained just around 0.2 percent following a
six-session winning streak, with volumes crimped by a holiday
in Britain for the royal wedding.
U.S. DOLLAR KEY TO APRIL MARKET GAINS
April's strength in equity and commodity markets came
almost entirely from the slide in the dollar after Standard &
Poor's revised down its outlook for the U.S. sovereign credit
rating the Federal Reserve's admission that it was more
concerned about economic recovery than the greenback's
resilience.
Vindicating the Fed's stance, the U.S. economy grew less
than expected in the first quarter of 2011 and initial weekly
jobless claims rose more than forecast, data showed on
Thursday. []
"It's still a story of general dollar weakness," said
Richard Wiltshire, chief FX broker at ETX Capital. "Markets are
pretty thin and there's not a lot of depth to them." []
The U.S. dollar index versus major currencies <.DXY> fell
as low as 72.834, the lowest since 2008.
The euro <EUR=> neared a 17-month low against the
greenback, trading at $1.4844 by 1500 GMT.
Inflation in the 17-nation euro zone bloc edged up to 2.8
percent in April, well above the 2.0 percent target ceiling of
the European Central Bank, which raised interest rates for the
first time in two years earlier this month. The latest
inflation numbers raised prospects for another ECB interest
rate rise soon. []
The Australian dollar <AUD=D4> soared to 29-year highs,
hitting $1.0964. The Swis franc <CHF=> hit a record high of
0.8641.
The 19-commodity Reuters-Jefferies CRB index <.CRB>, a
broad indicator of the commodity market, is up 10 percent
year-to-date, making it the world's best performing asset
group.
World equities as measured by the MSCI <.MIWD00000PUS>
index are up by some 5.0 percent over the past two weeks,
inching up again Friday.
U.S. Treasuries prices slipped in light volume,
consolidating recent gains scored this week on weaker economic
data and prospects for accommodative monetary policy in the
months ahead. []
* For Reuters Global Investing Blog, click on
http://blogs.reuters.com/globalinvesting
* For the MacroScope Blog, click on
http://blogs.reuters.com/macroscope
* For Hedge Fund Blog, click on
http://blogs.reuters.com/hedgehub
(Additional reporting by Mike Peacock, Jessica Mortimer, Atul
Prakash and William James in London; Ian Chua in Sydney; and
Umesh Desai and Jongwoo Cheon in Singapore)
