* Global stocks rebound on Greece bailout speculation
* Euro rises against US dollar, best day in 2-1/2 months
* Dow Jones Industrials above 10,000
* Commodity prices gain on U.S. dollar woes
By Daniel Bases
NEW YORK, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Global stocks rose on Tuesday
and the euro is on track for its biggest one-day gain in 2-1/2
months on expectations euro zone countries will step in to help
fix the Greek debt troubles that have soured risk appetite.
The euro's gains against the U.S. dollar gave commodity
prices a fillip, boosting spot gold and crude oil prices by one
percent.
"Investors are basically looking at speculation of a Greek
bailout as an excuse to book some profits on recent gains in
the dollar against the euro," said Omer Esiner, senior market
analyst at Travelex Global Business Payments in Washington.
U.S. stocks benchmark stock indexes all opened with a
better than 1.0 percent gain, erasing losses of the prior
session as bailout expectations buoyed sentiment and brokerage
comments helped lift industrials such as construction equipment
maker Caterpillar. Caterpillar's stock surged 4.88 percent to
$53.26 <CAT.N>.
European Union leaders will hold a special summit on the
economy on Thursday in Brussels amid increasing worries that
Greece and other so-called peripheral euro zone economies
cannot handle their debts and deficits.
EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin
Almunia said the situation in Greece was difficult and are a
common concern for the EU. []
Expectations about a rescue for Greece followed news that
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet was leaving
a meeting of central bankers in Sydney early to attend a
European Union leaders' summit. []
EU officials later clarified that Trichet's early return to
Europe from a trip to Australia had been long-planned, but it
nonetheless fueled speculation of a bail out.
Spreads between German 10-year bonds <DE10YT=RR> and Greek
and Portuguese equivalents <GR10YT=RR> <PT10YT=RR> narrowed,
although they remained wide at 324 and 144 basis points,
respectively.
The euro climbed 0.68 percent at $1.3745 <EUR=> and 0.90
percent at 122.99 yen <EURJPY=>.
The U.S. dollar was down 0.38 percent against a basket six
major currencies <.DXY>.
"We are seeing a squeeze of some short euro positions which
were established at low levels as market speculation of a Greek
bailout is seen as positive in the near-term," said Antje
Praefcke, currency strategist at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.
The euro is down 4.0 percent versus the dollar year-to-date
and over 7.5 percent against the yen, in part because of
concerns over debt.
Spot gold <XAU=> hit a session high of $1,079.05 an ounce
and was bid at $1,073.05, up roughly 1 percent. Crude oil
prices rose 1 percent to $72.62 a barrel <CLc1>.
Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasuries fell 9/32 of a point in
price, pushing the yield up to 3.6 percent <US10YT=RR> ahead of
a $40 billion three-year note auction scheduled for 1 p.m.
(1800 GMT).
STOCKS REBOUND
In early U.S. stock market trade, the Standard & Poor's 500
stock index <.SPX> is up 1.08 percent at 1,068.13 while the Dow
Jones industrial average <> is up 1.2 percent at
10,026.82.
World stocks as measured by MSCI <.MIWD00000PUS> rose 0.84
percent, lifted mainly by gains of 1.6 percent in their
emerging market component. Chinese and Hong Kong shares were
generally higher, cheered by higher commodity prices.
In Europe, the FTSEurofirst 300 <> rose 0.29 percent
to 979.33, although year-to-date losses are around 6 percent.
A number of worries have hammered the market following last
year's large gains.
"Investors are rightly concerned about the timing of the
removal of extraordinary loose fiscal and monetary policy. The
risk of default has increased and there is an uncertainty over
financial regulation," said Henk Potts, equity strategist at
Barclays Wealth.
Japan's Nikkei didn't participate in the rebound, closing
before the rising tenor of bailout speculation. The Nikkei
<> edged down 0.2 percent to a two-month closing low.
Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T>, whose shares have lost about a
fifth of their value since late January, rose on short-covering
with investors welcoming signs it was taking steps to deal with
its safety problems.
The automaker announced a recall of the Prius and other
hybrid cars for braking problems.
(Additional reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss, Emily
Flitter in New York; Jeremy Gaunt, Atul Prakash and Neal
Armstrong in London; Marcin Grajewski in Strasbourg)
