* Spain, Ireland, Belgium have solid debt sales
* Euro, stocks and commodities gain
* Data shrugged off, bonds under pressure (Updates with U.S. markets open)
By Walter Brandimarte and Simon Falush
NEW YORK/LONDON, June 15 (Reuters) - Stocks, commodities and the euro gained on Tuesday after successful sales of government bonds by some of the weakest members of the euro zone eased worries about the ability of debt-ridden European countries to obtain market financing.
U.S. stocks rose about 1 percent as the euro -- which has become a yardstick for equity investors to gauge risk appetite -- rose above $1.23 to its strongest level since June 3.
European shares also rose as strong demand for Irish and Spanish government debt offset jitters about Greece's fiscal health, a day after Moody's downgraded Greece's debt rating to junk status.
Belgium also held a successful bond auction on Tuesday.
Yields paid at the auctions, however, were still sharply higher than a month ago, with investors still on edge after the Moody's downgrade of Greece.
"The more the market starts to see that the credit markets are beginning to return to normalcy, the better it becomes for the euro," said Boris Schlossberg, director of currency research at GFT in New York.
The single European currency <EUR=> rose as high as $1.2305, according to the electronic trading platform EBS. It remained 0.69 percent up at $1.2301 later.
Stocks rose across the board as investors felt safer to take in risk, despite disappointing economic data in the United States and Germany.
The Dow Jones industrial average <
> rose 97.72 points, or 0.96 percent, to 10,288.61, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> gained 10.95 points, or 1.0 percent, to 1,100.58. The Nasdaq Composite Index < > was up 28.83 points, or 1.28 percent, at 2,272.79.Industrial and technology sectors, which have high exposure to Europe, led the U.S. advance. Planemaker Boeing Co <BA.N> up rose 3 percent to $66.78, while Caterpillar Inc <CAT.N> added 2 percent to $62.17.
The move is "all related to the euro. It determines how the stock market behaves," said Joseph Battipaglia, market strategist at Stifel Nicolaus in Yardley, Pennsylvania.
Gains were just modestly trimmed after a report showed U.S. homebuilder sentiment fell in June by the sharpest amount since the height of the financial crisis.
In Europe, the FTSEurofirst 300 <
> index of top shares climbed 0.8 percent, gaining ground for the fifth consecutive session as more cyclical sectors like banks <.SX7P> put on a strong performance.European stocks largely ignored a slump in a closely watched indicator of German investor sentiment. The ZEW economic think-tank's indicator fell in June at its fastest rate since 2008, hit by concerns over the European debt woes. [
]World stocks <.MIWD00000PUS> gained 0.9 percent, up for a sixth day, while emerging market stocks <.MSCIEF> gained 0.6 percent, according to benchmark MSCI indexes.
U.S. Treasuries prices were just modestly up in thin trading as demand for the safe-haven assets eased. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note <US10YT=RR> was up 3/32, with the yield at 3.2492 percent.
Crude oil prices rose, supported by forecasts of reduced crude stockpiles in the United States, though the market remained wary after the Greek rating downgrade.
U.S. crude oil <CLc1> rose $1.20, or 1.6 percent, to $76.32 per barrel. (Editing by Leslie Adler)