(New throughout, updates prices and market activity to European
close, U.S. midday)
* European, U.S. equities shrug off China's falling stocks
* U.S. Federal Reserve in focus
* Brent oil turns up
By Michael Connor
NEW YORK, July 28 (Reuters) - U.S. and European stocks rose
on Tuesday, and were on track to snap five-day losing streaks as
investors focused on earnings and mergers news and looked past
another fall in Chinese equities.
Prices of safe-haven government bonds eased, while the
dollar rallied on growing expectations the Federal Reserve could
take a hawkish bias toward raising interest rates in a policy
statement due on Wednesday. Oil prices turned up on hopes U.S.
crude stockpiles were shrinking.
Wall Street's Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was up
128.01 points, or 0.73 percent, to 17,568.6 in midday New York
trade, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 18.45 points, or 0.89 percent,
to 2,086.09 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 32.60 points,
or 0.65 percent, to 5,072.38.
United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS) UPS.N shares jumped 5.2 percent and
Ford F.N gained 2 percent after each reported
better-than-forecast profits.
Merger news helped lift European stocks, with the
FTSEuroFirst 300 index of leading European shares closing up 1.1
percent at just under 1,546 points .FTEU3 .
RSA Insurance Group RSA.L jumped 18 percent after Zurich
Insurance ZURN.VX said it was considering a bid for the
British group.
Shares in Kering PRTP.PA , meanwhile, surged 5.6 percent
after Gucci, the flagship brand of the French luxury and
sportswear group, posted a 4.6 percent rise in underlying
second-quarter sales.
"The market has been preoccupied with uncertainties related
to China in the last couple of days, but those concerns are
taking a back seat today and equities are getting some support
from company earnings and M&A," said Gerhard Schwarz, head of
equity strategy at Baader Bank in Munich.
The main China indexes fell again, although by nowhere near
as much as Monday's 8.5 percent plunge. The Shanghai market
benchmark .SSEC closed 1.7 percent lower.
The Fed kicked off a two-day policy meeting. No immediate
change in interest rates is expected, so attention centered on
whether Fed Chair Janet Yellen would signal September or
December as the most likely date for a rate increase.
Oil bounced up from near six-month lows, as bets for a drop
in U.S. crude stockpiles offset worries about a global supply
glut and equity market meltdown in China. O/R
Brent LCOc1 was up 10 cents, or 0.2 percent, at $53.57 a
barrel after hitting $52.28, the lowest since early February.
The price of copper CMCU3 , heavily influenced by demand
from key consumer China, recovered from Monday's six-year low
and was up 2.3 percent at $5,306 a tonne on the London Metal
Exchange.
In currency markets, the dollar rose against many of its key
rivals, including the euro and yen, as traders bet that the
first U.S. rate hike in almost a decade is still likely to come
in September.
The euro fell 0.4 percent at $1.1045 EUR= , after on Monday
touching a two-week high of $1.1129. The dollar was up 0.35
percent against the yen at 123.66 yen JPY= .
Bond yields edged higher, with the 10-year U.S. Treasuries
off 7/32 in price and yielding 2.2553 percent US10YT=RR . The
comparable UK yield rose a basis point, while the yield on the
10-year German Bund was also up 1 basis point.
(Additional Reporting by Jamie McGeever; and Lionel Laurent;
Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and David Gregorio)