* Euro battered as refinancing crunch nears on Thursday
* U.S. 2-year note yields hit record low on risk aversion
* Gold inches higher as safe-haven buying supports gains
By Herbert Lash and Natsuko Waki
NEW YORK/LONDON, June 29 (Reuters) - World stocks, commodity prices and the euro tumbled on Tuesday as risk appetite ebbed over concerns about the repayment of 442 billion euros ($545.5 billion) to the European Central Bank.
Gold inched higher and U.S. Treasuries rose, pushing two-year note yields to the lowest on record, as jitters over the euro zone debt crisis supported safe-haven demand. For details see: [
] [ ]Yields on the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasuries <US10YT=RR> fell below 3 percent for the first time since April 2009 as the euro hit an all-time low versus the Swiss franc and an 8-1/2-year trough against the yen. [
]Investors shunned riskier assets and traders cited significant U.S. dollar short covering overnight, further weighing on the euro.
The dollar was up against a basket of major currencies, with the U.S. Dollar Index <.DXY> up 0.71 percent at 86.26.
The euro <EUR=> was down 0.98 percent at $1.2157.
The risk premium on southern European government bonds over benchmark German bunds widened and the cost of insuring their debt against default rose. [
]"There is quite a lot of worries about the (U.S.) payrolls, worries about stress tests of European banks and also the rollover of ECB's long-term repo operations that will be taking place in the next couple of days," said Paul Robson, currency strategist at RBS Global Banking.
European shares slumped, with the FTSEurofirst 300 <
> index down 2.8 percent. Shanghai's equities index < > plunged more than 4 percent and Japan's Nikkei < > was poised for its worst quarter since 2008.Banks were among the heaviest decliners as they prepare to pay back the ECB money that was borrowed a year ago at rock bottom rates, leaving a potential liquidity shortfall in the financial system of over 100 billion euros. [
]Barclays, BNP Paribas and BBVA were down 3 percent to 4.1 percent.
U.S. stocks extended losses, dropping more than 2 per cent, after a weak reading of the Conference Board's U.S. consumer confidence index, which fell in June to 52.9 from a downwardly revised 62.7 the previous month. [
]The CBOE Volatility Index <.VIX> jumped more than 16 percent to a session high of 33.82 on news of the private business research group's confidence index.
Even though single-family home prices unexpectedly climbed in April from the previous month, signs of a sustained recovery have yet to emerge, price indexes from Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller showed.
The S&P composite index of prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas rose 0.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis after a downwardly revised 0.2 percent drop in March, compared with a 0.1 percent decline forecast in a Reuters survey.
MSCI's all-country world index <.MIWD00000PUS> fell 2.7 percent and its emerging markets index <.MSCIEF> fell. 2.8 percent.
Shortly after 10 a.m., the Dow Jones industrial average <
> was down 224.46 points, or 2.21 percent, at 9,914.06. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was down 25.39 points, or 2.36 percent, at 1,049.18. The Nasdaq Composite Index < > was down 65.29 points, or 2.94 percent, at 2,155.36.Oil prices fell more than 3 percent to below $76 per barrel and copper shed more than 4 percent as concerns about economic recovery weighed on market sentiment. [
] [ ]U.S. light sweet crude oil <CLc1> fell $2.64 to $75.61 a barrel.
ICE Brent <LCOc1> fell $2.47 to $75.12.
Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes <US10YT=RR> were trading 14/32 higher in price to yield 2.97 percent. Bond yields move in inverse relationship to their price.
Against the yen, the dollar <JPY=> was down 0.92 percent at 88.53. (Additional reporting by Angela Moon, Chris Reese in New York; Harpreet Bhal, Jan Harvey; Writing by Herbert Lash. Editing by W Simon ( )