* Global stocks rise for second day in a row
* Oil making a "fool" of forecasters
* Sterling, Aussie the big gainers in FX
By Jamie McGeever
LONDON, May 17 (Reuters) - World shares rose on Tuesday as
technology giant Apple Inc's biggest rise in over two months and
oil's march higher to within sight of $50 a barrel boosted
investor demand for riskier assets at the expense of safe-haven
bonds.
The major European stock markets rose around 1 percent in
early trading, following similar gains in Asia after Wall Street
also chalked up a 1 percent rise on Monday.
MSCI's index of global shares rose 0.4 percent
.MIWD00000PUS , putting it on track for its second consecutive
rise, something it has not managed in a month.
Investors will be looking to see how long the rally is
sustained for and whether Brent crude oil futures, at their
highest level in almost six months, can break above $50 for the
first time since Nov. 4.
"The strong finish for U.S. markets has seen a similarly
positive European open today," said Michael Hewson, chief market
analyst at CMC Markets, adding that investors would also look to
UK and U.S. inflation data later on Tuesday for direction.
The FTSEuroFirst 300 index of leading European shares was up
1 percent at 1,329 points .FTEU3 , with Germany's DAX 1.1
percent .GDAXI higher, France's CAC 40 up 1 percent .FCHI
and Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE gaining 0.8 percent.
The basic resources sector .SXPP led the way, rising
almost 3 percent, while financials were around 2 percent higher
.SX7P .
In Asia earlier, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific
shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.8 percent, extending
its recovery from a two-month low set on Friday. Japan's Nikkei
.N225 gained about 1.1 percent.
U.S. stock futures pointed to a rise of around 0.3 percent
at the open on Wall Street.
FOOL'S BLACK GOLD
Shares in Apple AAPL.O finished 3.7 percent higher on
Monday after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa) BRKa.N
reported taking a stake of about $1 billion in the iPhone maker.
Apple shares had lost about one-fifth of their value in the past
month on worries about the company's slowing sales growth.
Oil's rise to six-month highs came as supply disruptions
prompted long-time bear Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) to issue a bullish
assessment on near-term prices. Goldman has long warned of
global storage hitting capacity and of another oil price crash
to as low as $20 per barrel.
A combination of Nigerian, Venezuelan and other outages,
declining U.S. production, and virtually frozen inflows of
Canadian crude after wildfires in Alberta's oil sands region all
helped to lift oil prices.
"The oil market continues to make an even larger fool of
most forecasters than other financial assets: having caught
everyone out by plummeting, it is now catching us out by
continuing to rise," Rabobank analysts wrote.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 rose 0.7 percent to $49.31 per
barrel, after having risen 2.4 percent on Monday, touching
$49.47, its highest since early November.
U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1
went up 1.1 percent to $48.24, having risen 3.3 percent on
Monday.
Concerns about a slowdown in the Chinese economy could weigh
on Asian shares, however, after data published on Saturday
showed investment, factory output and retail sales all grew more
slowly than expected in April.
In the currency market, the British pound rose 0.8 percent
to $1.4515 GBP=D4 helped in part by a report that the "In"
campaign held a 15-point lead over rival "Out" ahead of
Britain's June 23 referendum on European Union membership.
The dollar was little changed against the euro at $1.1320
EUR= , but rose 0.4 percent against the yen to 109.44 yen
JPY= as investors took a 'risk on' stance on Tuesday.
The Australian dollar rose nearly 1 percent to $0.7345
AUD=D4 , its best day in over a month, after minutes of the
Reserve Bank of Australia's May policy meeting were less dovish
in tone than many investors had expected.
Bond yields were mostly higher, with U.S. yields up a basis
point across the curve US2YT=RR US10YT=RR and benchmark euro
zone yields up around 2 basis points EU2YT=RR EU10YT=RR .
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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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(Editing by Catherine Evans)