* Cautious Yellen speech ripples through markets
* Dollar tumbles in aftermath of dovish comments
* Wall St rallies as fears of imminent rate hike fade
* Oil jumps on Wall Street rally, weak dollar
(Updates with U.S. markets opening; previous dateline London)
By Lewis Krauskopf
NEW YORK, March 30 (Reuters) - An index of global stocks on
Wednesday charged to its highest point since the start of the
year, while the dollar weakened, as easing concerns about rising
interest rates led investors into riskier assets.
Oil prices climbed, as commodities denominated in dollars
became more attractive to users of other currencies. U.S.
Treasury prices fell with benchmark yields rising from four-week
lows amid selling in safe-haven bonds.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Tuesday the U.S.
central bank should proceed cautiously as it looks to raise
interest rates, pushing back on a handful of her colleagues who
have suggested another move may be just around the corner.
Yellen's comments were echoed on Wednesday by Chicago Fed
President Charles Evans, who said there was a high hurdle to
raising rates in April, given low inflation.
"You have got the follow through from the Fed. They are
taking one of the fears basically off the table at this point in
terms of rising interest rates," said Chuck Carlson, chief
executive officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond,
Indiana.
"The market has been basically kind of moving almost in
tandem with what has been happening with the dollar. That trade
got reinforced yesterday."
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was up 101.98
points, or 0.58 percent, at 17,735.09, the S&P 500 .SPX gained
10.18 points, or 0.5 percent, at 2,065.19 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC added 20.28 points, or 0.42 percent, at
4,866.91.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 advanced
1.3 percent.
MSCI's index of world shares .MIWD00000PUS gained 1.4
percent, putting it into positive territory for 2016.
The dollar had hit its highest level in about two weeks
against a basket of major currencies .DXY at the start of the
week, boosted by a series of hawkish comments from Fed
officials. But the greenback receded after Yellen's comments,
which pointed to global risks to the U.S economy.
The dollar fell another 0.4 percent on Wednesday. It is down
about 4 percent this year and on track to post its biggest
quarterly percentage decline in five years. The euro EUR= rose
0.5 percent against the dollar.
"(Yellen) seemed very biased towards the dovish side, and
the market is taking that as a signal that the Fed is maybe
trying to engineer a weaker currency or a more buoyant financial
market, or possibly both," Altana Hard Currency Fund manager Ian
Gunner said in London.
U.S. private employers added 200,000 jobs in March, above
economists' expectations, a report by a payrolls processor
showed.
Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR were down 10/32
in price for a yield of 1.847 percent, up 3.5 basis points from
late on Tuesday. The 10-year yield hit a four-week low of 1.800
percent on Tuesday.
U.S. crude prices CLc1 rose 1.1 percent to $38.71 a
barrel, while benchmark Brent LCOc1 climbed 1.3 percent to
$39.63 a barrel.
"This year's unusually strong correlation between the stock
market and energy futures has been largely inspired by the
common support of low to negative rates," said Jim Ritterbusch
of Chicago-based energy markets consultancy Ritterbusch &
Associates.