* Europe stocks eye longest winning streak in five months
* Wall Street flat after Tuesday rally
* Strong U.S. jobs data pushes bond yields up, supports
dollar
(Updates with U.S. markets, changes dateline, previous LONDON)
By Dion Rabouin
NEW YORK, March 2 (Reuters) - Shares on major equity markets
hit their highest in nearly two months on Wednesday and U.S.
government bond yields touched their highest in almost four
weeks as strong U.S. economic data tempered fears of a global
economic slowdown.
Crude oil futures turned higher in mid-morning trading in
New York despite a huge build-up in stockpiles.
European stocks rose, putting them on track for their
longest winning streak in five months. Wall Street opened lower,
but was little changed with the S&P 500 not far from an
eight-week high hit Tuesday.
The latest piece of better-than-expected data came from U.S.
private sector employers, who added 214,000 jobs in February,
beating economists' expectations. That added to strong
manufacturing and construction spending data earlier this week.
"The questions people had regarding the strength of the
economy, particularly the U.S. economy, are clearing up and
that's helping to bolster a little bit more confidence in taking
on some more risk," said Warren West, principal at Greentree
Brokerage Services in Philadelphia.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 6.06 points, or
0.04 percent, to 16,859.02, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.73 points,
or 0.04 percent, to 1,977.62 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC
dropped 10.39 points, or 0.22 percent, to 4,679.21.
The FTSEuroFirst index was up 0.6 percent .FTEU3 , on track
for its fifth straight day of gains and at a one-month high.
MSCI's broadest gauge of the world's stock markets
.MIWD00000PUS also rose to hit its highest level in close to
two months.
Asian stocks rose overnight to a two-month high with Japan's
and China's main indexes both up more than 4 percent. .T .SS
CRUDE REBOUND
U.S. crude CLc1 rose to hit a two-month high above $35 per
barrel despite government data showing crude inventories rose by
10.4 million barrels to 518 million in the week to Feb. 26,
almost triple the 3.6 million-barrel increase expected by
analysts.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 were little changed at $36.79 a
barrel.
U.S. Treasury yields rose as the job market data reinforced
the view that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates
later this year.
Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR were down 7/32
in price to yield 1.8581 percent. It earlier touched 1.87
percent, the highest since Feb. 5.
The specter of a Fed hike gave support to the dollar index
.DXY , which measures the greenback against a basket of
currencies. It rose 0.1 percent.
The dollar was down 0.2 percent against the yen, at 113.75
yen, after gaining more than 1 percent on Tuesday.
Expectations that the ECB will announce an even more
stimulative monetary policy at its March 10 meeting contributed
to the euro's weakness, although previous disappointment over
lack of action limited the decline.
"The ECB is widely expected to weaken the euro with stronger
stimulus," said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western
Union Business Solutions in Washington. "At the same time,
markets are mindful of that huge disappointment in December."
The euro fell versus the dollar, dropping 0.3 percent to
$1.083.
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Shanghai CSI 300 and global effects interactive https://t.co/YqIYLIbInP
Chinese A-shares vs developed and emerging stocks http://link.reuters.com/rac25w
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