(ADVISORY-There will be no Global Markets report from New York
on Friday, March 25 because of the Good Friday holiday)
* Another Fed official joins chorus on tightening risk
* Dollar heads for 5th day of gains, best run since April
* Drop in oil and commodities hits risk sentiment, stocks
(Adds close of U.S. markets, oil settlement prices)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, March 24 (Reuters) - Global equity markets
declined on Thursday and the dollar added to a recent string of
gains after another U.S. Federal Reserve official talked of
higher U.S. interest rates before long.
The dollar .DXY rose for a fifth day, adding 0.07 percent
to 96.116 against a basket of major currencies. The streak is
the longest for the dollar in nearly a year and puts the
greenback on track for its first weekly rise in a month.
The gains were further supported by remarks of St. Louis Fed
President James Bullard, who joined a chorus of officials who
have recently highlighted the chance of at least two rate
increases this year, with the first perhaps as soon as April.
The dollar's strength weighed on oil prices, although they
partly rebounded from session lows after a drop in the U.S. oil
rig count eased some concerns stemming from recent data showing
record high U.S. stockpiles.
"You have to somehow break out of the cycle, when you are so
dependent on everything the Fed does or everything a central
banker says. That kind of locks up the market," said Joe
Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New
Jersey.
"It is really frustrating we are stuck with these guys, and
every time they say something the market reacts."
The rally in crude prices to above $40 a barrel had been a
big factor in stock market advances in recent weeks, helping the
benchmark S&P 500 .SPX rise more than 12 percent from a Feb.
11 low.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 13.35 points,
or 0.08 percent, to 17,515.94, the S&P 500 .SPX dropped 0.74
points, or 0.04 percent, to 2,035.97 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC added 4.64 points, or 0.1 percent, to 4,773.51.
Volume across markets was light, with many closing on Friday
ahead of the Easter holiday.
U.S. crude CLc1 settled down 0.83 percent at $39.46 a
barrel, recovering from a session low of $38.33 after sliding 4
percent on Wednesday. Brent LCOc1 settled down slightly, off
0.07 percent at $40.44, after an earlier drop to $39.22.
The oil pullback has pressured U.S. and European equities
this week, with the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3
and S&P 500 suffering their worst drop in six weeks.
MSCI's index of world shares .MIWD00000PUS , down 0.57
percent on the session, was off 1.4 percent for the week.
The stronger dollar and softer oil prices were reflected in
data on U.S. durable goods orders, which showed a drop in
February, while weekly jobless claims continued to point to a
solid labor market.
Gold XAU= slipped 0.2 percent to $1,217.30 an ounce, after
hitting its lowest since late February at $1,212.20, and was
down 3 percent for the week, its worst performance since
November.
Copper CMCU3 , down nearly 2 percent for the week, was off
0.09 percent at $4,945.15 a tonne.
Benchmark U.S. 10-year notes US10YT=RR were last down 7/32
in price to yield 1.9 percent, up from 1.875 percent on
Wednesday. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Global assets in 2015 http://link.reuters.com/dub25t
Commodities performance http://link.reuters.com/rac73w
Currencies vs dollar http://link.reuters.com/tak27s
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(Editing by Bernadette Baum and Steve Orlofsky)