* Eurpean stocks at 3-week closing high; Wall St rises
* Euro rises versus dollar on rate outlook
* Yen hits 10-month low against euro
(Updates prices, adds analyst quote on ADP jobs report)
By Barani Krishnan
NEW YORK, March 30 (Reuters) - World stocks rose more than
1 percent on Wednesday as strong hiring by U.S. private
employers boosted both U.S. and European markets, while the
euro rose against the dollar after remarks by a European policy
maker.
A report by ADP that U.S. private employers added 201,000
jobs in March buoyed expectations over the pace of economic
recovery in the United States, the world's largest economy.
MSCI's all-country world stock index <.MIWD00000PUS> gained
more than 1.0 percent while European shares hit a three-week
closing high, and U.S. shares rose.
In currency markets, the euro turned higher against the
dollar after European Central Bank executive board member,
Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, said the bank's policy is to gradually
raise interest rates.
The euro rose to the day's highs at $1.4148 <EUR=EBS> on
electronic trading platform EBS. It was last at $1.4138, up 0.2
percent, after falling as low as $1.4052 earlier.
Bini Smaghi's comments suggested that "a series of rate
hikes may be coming this year," said Brian Dolan, chief
strategist at Forex.com.
The Japanese yen slipped to a 10-month low versus the euro
and a near three-month low against the dollar as recent hawkish
comments from euro zone and U.S. officials on interest rates
contrasted with Japan's loose monetary policy stance.
The yen fell against the euro to 117.28 yen. Against the
U.S. dollar, the yen fell to 83.19 yen <JPY=>.
Rising risk appetite encouraged investors to seek
higher-yielding assets, with the Australian dollar <AUD=D4>,
climbing to a 29-year high over the U.S. dollar and a 10-month
high against the yen.
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Graphic on year-to-date gains across asset classes:
http://r.reuters.com/kyw48p
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ADP JOBS REPORT BOLSTERS WALL STREET
On Wall Street, shares rose as the ADP report did little to
shake up expectations for Friday's closely watched government
report on non-farm payrolls and as investors positioned for the
quarter's end.[]
The Dow Jones industrial average <> was up 70.62
points, or 0.58 percent, at 12,349.63. The Standard & Poor's
500 Index <.SPX> was up 8.54 points, or 0.65 percent, at
1,327.98. The Nasdaq Composite Index <> was up 16.47
points, or 0.60 percent, at 2,773.36.
Merger and acquisition activity also supported sentiment
after Canadian drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International
<VRX.TO><VRX.N> made an unsolicited bid to buy Cephalon Inc
<CEPH.O> for $5.7 billion. Cephalon shares soared 28.2 percent
to $75.34. U.S.-listed shares of Valeant were up 9.3 percent to
$49.53.[]
"M&A activity has been very consistent over a broad array
of sectors with incredible premiums, and that's one of the
biggest catalysts for the market's rebound," said Alan Lancz,
president at Alan B. Lancz & Associates Inc, an investment
advisory firm based in Toledo, Ohio.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top
shares closed 0.8 percent higher at 1,134.63 points, its
highest closing level since March 9.
"We have worked through the oversold conditions and
technically the markets are in a very strong and favorable
condition to respond to good newsflow. If we do get good
non-farm payrolls, the market will do very very well," said
Mike Lenhoff, chief strategist at Brewin Dolphin.
Oil prices see-sawed, kept within a tight range as markets
juggled the impact of data showing rising crude oil inventories
in the United States while uncertainty over Libya and the
Middle East limited losses. U.S. crude <CLc1> slipped 19 cents
to $104.604 a barrel.
But copper, an industrial metal seen as an economic
bellwether, fell almost 2 percent as investors worried about
lack of demand from top buyer China. The metal, used in power
to construction, fell over 7 cents a pound to hover at around
$4.27 in benchmark U.S. futures trade <HGK1>.
(Additional reporting by Nick Olivari and Chuck Mikolajczak in
New York; and Ikuko Kurahone, Natsuko Waki, Atul Prakash and
Joanne Frearson in London; Editing by Leslie Adler)
