* World equity index on track for eighth rise in a row
* Commodity index poised for best week since 2012
* Fed minutes cool rate rise prospects; dollar at 3-week low
* Brent on track for best week since 2009
* Zinc soars on Glencore output cut
(Updates with U.S. market opening levels, changes datelines,
previous LONDON)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Stocks on major world markets
were on track for their biggest weekly gain since 2011 on
Friday, helped by this week's strong rebound in metals and crude
oil prices.
Brent crude oil was heading for its biggest weekly rise
since March 2009, while the U.S. dollar hit a three-week low
against the euro as minutes of the Federal Reserve's last policy
meeting showed the U.S. central bank is in no rush to raise
interest rates.
The MSCI world equity index .MIWD00000PUS was up 0.8
percent, on track for the eighth rise in a row and a roughly 4
percent gain for the week.
The 19-commodity Thomson Reuters/Core Commodity CRB Index
.TRJCRB , a global benchmark for commodities, was up 4.2
percent on the week, on track for its biggest advance since
2012.
U.S. stocks were up slightly after trading down earlier,
with concern about the outlook for earnings weighing on
sentiment. Aluminum company Alcoa (NYSE:AA) AA.N shares were down 5.4
percent following disappointing results.
Zinc jumped, in its biggest daily gain in seven years, after
troubled mining giant Glencore GLEN.L said it would cut
production. ID:nL3N1285EM
Glencore shares gained and were on track for a gain of about
40 percent on the week - their biggest weekly rise since being
floated in mid-2011 - and doubling from the record low reached
only two weeks ago.
The dollar also fell against the Swiss franc, while a dollar
index .DXY was down 0.5 percent. The euro was last up 0.59
percent against the dollar at $1.12430 EUR=EBS .
"The comments about inflation remaining low, the concern
that that's going to push the hike out to next year is what's
driving currencies against the board," said Jason Leinwand,
managing director at Riverside Risk Advisors in New York.
The Fed minutes revealed the extent to which policymakers
are concerned that a global economic slowdown might threaten the
U.S. economic outlook. Though they said overseas turmoil had not
"materially altered" economic prospects, they opted to hold
interest rates steady last month. ID:nL1N128230
An unexpectedly weak U.S. jobs report for September last
week led many investors to speculate that the Fed will not
deliver its first hike until 2016, a feeling strengthened by the
minutes.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 35.95 points,
or 0.21 percent, to 17,086.7, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 3.82
points, or 0.19 percent, to 2,017.25 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC added 24.99 points, or 0.52 percent, to 4,835.78.
The FTSEuroFirst index of the leading 300 European shares was
up 0.5 percent .FTEU3 .
BRENT TRACK FOR WEEKLY GAIN
Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 were lower but on course for
a rise of more than 10 percent on the week, which would be its
biggest weekly gain since 2009.
U.S. crude was up 1.2 percent at $50.01 a barrel CLc1 . Oil
also got a boost overnight after forecaster PIRA Energy Group
predicted crude prices would rise to $70 per barrel by the end
of 2016. ID:nL1N1281EF
Three-month zinc futures CMZN3 were up 11.2 percent on the
London Metal Exchange at $1,854 a tonne after Glencore said it
will cut production by 500,000 tonnes, equivalent to 4 percent
of the world's output.
Zinc had fallen 30 percent since May to a five-year low, so
the rebound could mark the bottom of the market and the
commodities complex in general, some analysts said.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury prices US10YT=RR were flat, with
the yield at 2.102 percent.
On Thursday HSBC issued one of the boldest U.S. and European
yield forecasts of all the big investment banks, predicting the
10-year U.S. yield will fall to 1.5 percent and the equivalent
German bund yield at just 0.2 percent next year. ID:nL8N1281EQ