* Wall Street little changed after mixed earnings
* Oil boosted as Iran voices support for output freeze
* Dollar capped vs yen after Fed Bullard's dovish comments
(Updates with U.S. market, changes dateline from previous
LONDON)
By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK, Feb 18 (Reuters) - A gauge of stocks across the
globe extended its best run of the year on Thursday, with higher
oil prices supporting risk assets even as earnings in Europe and
the United States limited gains.
Confident talk that European Union leaders will reach a deal
to help keep Britain in the bloc also gave markets support
despite lingering concern about the state of the global economy.
Wall Street opened little changed with consumer stocks
weighing on the S&P 500 after Wal-Mart (N:WMT) WMT.N , down 4.5
percent, reported a decline in quarterly earnings and cut its
full-year forecast. IBM (N:IBM) IBM.N , up 6 percent, offset the
retailer's decline.
The action in stocks followed the best three-day run for the
S&P 500 since August and for an MSCI index of shares world wide
.MIWD00000PUS since 2011.
"Investors are taking a step back, evaluating what's been
going on ... and for the moment, there's a lack of negative news
and some stability in oil," said Andre Bakhos, managing director
at Janlyn Capital in Bernardsville, New Jersey.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 7.54 points, or
0.05 percent, to 16,461.37, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 3.99 points,
or 0.21 percent, to 1,922.83 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC
dropped 23.02 points, or 0.51 percent, to 4,511.04.
Emerging market stocks .MSCIEF rose 1.4 percent to hit
their highest in six weeks. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300
.FTEU3 index was 0.2 percent higher although the overall
earnings picture remained weak.
It was a choppy session in Europe .FTEU3 as EU leaders
began a two-day summit in Brussels. But the mood improved after
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he was
"quite confident" a deal would be reached to keep Britain in the
EU.
Prime Minister David Cameron said hard work and good will
should help him clinch a deal at the summit, described by
leaders of the 28-nation bloc as the best chance of preventing
Britain leaving. RALLIES ALONG
Brent crude LCOc1 rose above $35 a barrel and has gained
nearly 6 percent so far this week after Iran welcomed plans by
Russia and Saudi Arabia to freeze output and an industry report
showed a surprise drop in U.S. inventories. O/R
U.S. oil CLc1 has gained 7.5 percent so far this week.
"What we see still is extreme volatility," said Carsten
Fritsch, analyst at Commerzbank (DE:CBKG). "I would not be surprised to
see prices retreating again by a big margin in coming days."
U.S. Treasury debt prices rose as stocks struggled to extend
their gains. Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR last
traded 7/32 higher in price for a yield of 1.793 percent, down 2
basis points from late on Wednesday.
The dollar was slightly stronger against a basket of
currencies even after comments on Wednesday from one of the
Federal Reserve's traditional "hawks," James Bullard, that it
would be "unwise" now for the central bank to keep hiking rates
given low inflation expectations and market volatility.
The euro slipped 0.3 percent versus the greenback EUR= at
$1.1095 and the safe-have yen JPY= was near its session high
against the dollar at 113.66.
Safe-haven gold XAU= added 0.4 percent to $1,214.06.