* Wall Street gains in choppy trade, tech a boost
* Euro falls on Greece's soft bond deal
* U.S. Treasury investors get ready for payrolls
NEW YORK, March 30 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks ticked higher on
Tuesday as optimistic data prompted the view the economy is
stabilizing and technology stocks gained, while in Europe
persistent worries about debt problems in Greece weighed on the
euro.
Greece's sale of 5 billion euros of seven-year bonds on
Monday attracted around 7 billion euros of bids, but that
compared with more than 16 billion euros bid for a 5 billion
euro 10-year issue earlier in the month. []
"I think there's more to the issue of sovereign debt and
bond yields than people make out," said Subodh Kumar, chief
investment strategist, Subodh Kumar & Associates, in Toronto.
The euro's decline against the dollar on unease about the
euro zone's fiscal health snapped a two-day advance, which some
investors considered too far, too fast.
Strong U.S. consumer confidence boosted the dollar against
the yen, with data on U.S. housing prices also pointing to an
improving economy.
The Conference Board, an industry group, reported that U.S.
consumer confidence rebounded in March, helped by a slight
increase in optimism about the labor market.
And the closely-watched Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home
prices index showed that January home prices rose for an eighth
straight month, pointing to stability in the U.S. housing
market. For details, see [][]
The economic data also helped boost oil prices and drove
copper prices to a 19-month high.
On Wall Street, stocks swung between gains and losses as
low volume exaggerated market swings in a holiday-shortened
week, before ending on a higher note. Apple Inc's <AAPL.O> move
to develop a new iPhone boosted telecom and chip maker shares.
The Dow Jones industrial average <> was up 11.56
points, or 0.1 percent, at 10,907.42. The Standard & Poor's 500
Index <.SPX> was up 0.05 points, or little changed, at
1,173.27. The Nasdaq Composite Index <> was up 6.33
points, or 0.3 percent, at 2,410.69.
"Stocks are just trickling higher, gains are selective,
it's a short week and being the end of the quarter, people have
locked in a lot of their positions," said Cleveland Rueckert,
market analyst at Birinyi Associates Inc in Stamford,
Connecticut.
Apple shares closed up 1.5 percent at $235.83, after
earlier hitting a record high, after The Wall Street Journal
reported the company is developing a new iPhone that would work
on Verizon Communications Inc's <VZ.N> mobile network.
[]
Verizon shares were up 2.6 percent at $31.23 while AT&T
<T.N>, currently the service provider for iPhone, shed 2.1
percent to $25.95.
The S&P 500 is up 5.2 percent quarter-to-date, while the
Dow has climbed 4.6 percent and the Nasdaq has gained 6.2
percent.
Friday's release of the government's non-farm payrolls
report for March is expected to give a fresh catalyst for the
market to brush up against 18-month highs. The expectation is
that the labor market had a significant turnaround last month,
according to strategists.
European shares ended slightly higher on Tuesday, with
gains in the utility sector overshadowing falls in banks,
though UBS <UBSN.VX> rose on news about the performance of its
fixed income business.
The FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top European shares
closed up 0.1 percent at 1,079.34 points after earlier touching
its highest level since early October 2008, at 1,086.03.
The utility sector was in demand following rises on Monday
as investors stuck with defensive stocks. E.ON <EONGn.DE>, GDF
Suez <GSZ.PA> and RWE <RWEG.DE> were up 0.7 to 1.3 percent.
EQUITIES FLAVOR OF THE MONTH
In currency markets, the dollar rose above 93 yen for the
first time since early January as the strong U.S. consumer
confidence data bolstered views that the Federal Reserve will
raise interest rates sooner than its Japanese or European
counterparts. It was last up 0.4 percent at 92.80 yen <JPY=>.
"The U.S. economy keeps getting better while Japan is
still in deflation, and with the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield
knocking on 4 percent, the interest rate differential is
pushing the dollar up," said Hidetoshi Yanagihara, senior
currency trader at Mizuho Corporate Bank in New York.
He said the dollar could reach 95 yen in the second
quarter, which begins on Thursday.
Sterling rose as data showed the UK economy growing a bit
more swiftly than expected. The pound rose 0.6 percent to
$1.5062 <GBP=> while the euro was changing hands at 89.02
pence, down 1 percent <EURGBP=>.
The euro fell 0.6 percent to $1.3416 <EUR=> and shed 0.5
percent to 124.48 yen <EURJPY=>.
The dollar was up against a basket of major trading-partner
currencies, with the U.S. Dollar Index <.DXY> up 0.1 percent at
81.482.
U.S. Treasury debt prices were mixed ahead of the end of
the first quarter and some investors moved to the sidelines
ahead of Friday's U.S. payroll data.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note <US10YT=RR> was up
1/32, with the yield at 3.87 percent, while the two-year U.S.
Treasury note <US2YT=RR> was down 1/32, with the yield at 1.07
percent.
At the longer end of the yield curve, the 30-year U.S.
Treasury bond <US30YT=RR> was up 7/32, with the yield at 4.76
percent.
Conversely, the MSCI world equity index <.MIWD00000PUS>
rose to its highest level since January, and emerging stocks
<.MSCIEF> gained 0.6 percent.
In energy and commodities prices, U.S. light sweet crude
oil <CLc1> rose 23 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $82.40 per barrel,
while spot gold prices <XAU=> fell 0.5 percent, to $1102.70.
The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index <.CRB> was up 0.89 points, or
0.3 percent, at 273.72.
(Reporting by Nick Olivari; Editing by Leslie Adler)
