* China's markets re-open after long holiday
* U.S. markets closed for Labor Day
* Glencore shares surge on debt cut pledge
By Jamie McGeever
LONDON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - European stocks rose on Monday,
led by a surge in mining and commodities giant Glencore after it
pledged to slash its debt by a third, but a fall in China after
markets there reopened after a four-day break dragged down Asian
bourses.
Trading is lighter than usual with U.S. markets closed for
Labor Day, while investors across all asset classes continued to
digest the implications of last week's U.S. jobs data on the
timing of the first U.S. interest rate hike since 2006.
In early trading the FTSEuroFirst index of leading 300
shares was up 1 percent at 1,407 points .FTEU3 and Britain's
mining-heavy FTSE 100 index was up 1.3 percent at 6,119 points
.FTSE .
Glencore GLEN.L shares soared 11 percent to 136 pence
after it said it will suspend dividends, sell assets and raise
$2.5 billion in a new share issue as it aims to cut its debt to
$20 billion by the end of next year.
"The time was ripe for management to address the problems
and any measures that might shore up some confidence in what was
beginning to look like a penny stock are clearly welcome," said
Brenda Kelly, head analyst at London Capital Group.
"Dividend cuts, asset selling and a new debt reduction plan
appear to be doing the trick," she said.
The rally in Europe was broad-based, marking a rebound from
Friday's steep losses of close to 3 percent after investors
marginally upped their bets that the Federal Reserve could raise
U.S. interest rates later this month.
Germany's DAX was up 1.2 percent .GDAXI at 10,161 points
and France's CAC 40 was also up 1.2 percent at 4,580 points
.FCHI .
It was a different story in Asia, where MSCI's broadest
index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS fell
0.7 percent.
Chinese stocks took centre stage when markets reopened after
closing over Thursday and Friday as Beijing celebrated 70 years
since the end of World War Two.
Shanghai shares .SSEC initially rose as much as 1.8
percent following remarks over the weekend by regulators aimed
at calming the market, but reversed course and closed down 2.5
percent.
China's policymakers and regulators tried to soothe jittery
markets, promising deeper financial market reforms and stressing
the economy was showing signs of stabilising.
Beijing also trimmed its 2014 growth figures on Monday, and
said its foreign exchange reserves fell in August by $93.9
billion - the largest monthly fall on record - to $3.55
trillion.
GOOD NEWS!
Financial leaders from the world's 20 biggest economies
agreed on Saturday to step up reform efforts to boost
disappointingly slow growth, saying reliance on ultra-low
interest rates would not be enough to accelerate economic
expansion.
But they also said they were confident growth would pick up
and, as a result, interest rates in "some advanced economies" --
code for the United States -- would have to rise.
Investors are still uncertain whether rates will rise this
month but that scepticism was diluted a little on Friday after
figures showed nonfarm payrolls increased 173,000 last month and
the unemployment rate dropped to 5.1 percent, its lowest in more
than seven years.
"With Fed 'lift-off' coming soon and the U.S. recovery on
track, we expect to see the 10-year yield close to 3 percent by
the end of 2016. And that will be good news!" wrote Societe
General strategists in a note to clients.
The 10-year Treasury yield closed at 2.13 percent on Friday
US10YT=RR , the lower end of its range over the last two weeks.
Core European government bonds were slightly weaker on
Monday, with the 10-year German yield up a basis point at 0.68
percent EU10YT=RR and the 30-year yield up 3 basis points at
1.40 percent.
In currencies the dollar was largely steady, rising 0.2
percent against the yen to 119.30 yen JPY= , but yielding
against the euro, which edged up 0.1 percent to $1.1153 EUR= .
The euro had dipped below $1.11 on Monday and on Friday
after the U.S. jobs data.
In commodities, crude oil fell on a lingering supply glut.
U.S. crude oil futures CLc1 were down 0.9 percent at $45.65 a
barrel and Brent crude dropped 1 percent to $49.11 a barrel
LCOc1 .
(Editing by Toby Chopra)