* Equities recover from early losses
* Travel sector stocks weak after attacks
* Gold, yen and Treasury bonds strength eases
(Adds close of European markets)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW York, March 22 (Reuters) - Global equity markets
reversed losses while safe-haven gold and government bonds
pulled back from higher levels on Tuesday in the wake of attacks
on the airport and a rush-hour metro train in Brussels.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for suicide bomb
attacks in the Belgian capital that killed at least 30
people.
Travel sector stocks, including airlines and hotels, were
among the hardest-hit, although equities managed to recover from
sharp losses and bonds and gold eased from their early highs.
On Wall Street, the NYSEArca airline index .XAL lost 0.4
percent and was on track for its first decline in five sessions.
Cruise ship operators Royal Caribbean RCL.N , down 3 percent
and Carnival Corp (NYSE:CCL) CCL.N , down 2.5 percent, were among the
worst performers on the S&P 500.
Those declines were offset by gains in Apple AAPL.O , up
0.7 percent to $106.62 and a 1 percent gain in the healthcare
.SPXHC sector.
"Slowly but surely that whole move has abated and stocks are
now on the plus side. I am quite surprised by this," said
Stephen Guilfoyle, managing director of floor operations at Deep
Value Execution Services in New York.
"You don't have a selloff in equities when there is a
catalyst, a prominent catalyst, a good reason to make a sale if
you were thinking of taking money off the table. This has to be
considered bullish."
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 13.11 points,
or 0.07 percent, to 17,636.98, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 3.72
points, or 0.18 percent, to 2,055.32 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC added 21.25 points, or 0.44 percent, to 4,830.13.
The FTSEuroFirst 300 index .FTEU3 of leading shares closed
down 0.12 percent at 1,338.20, rebounding from a 1.6 percent
drop. Belgian stocks .BEL20 rose 0.17 percent after having
been down as much as 1.4 percent. MSCI's index of world shares
.MIWD00000PUS edged up 0.13 percent.
In Europe, the STOXX Europe 600 Travel & Leisure index
.SXTP was down 1.8 percent. Shares in major European airlines
like Ryanair RYA.I and Air France-KLM AIRF.PA also fell.
Gold XAU= was up 0.38 percent at $1,248.10 an ounce after
hitting a high of $1.259.60 earlier.
Benchmark U.S. 10-year notes US10YT=RR were last up 4/32
in price to yield 1.9085 percent, down from 1.921 percent on
Monday. The yields earlier fell as low as 1.879 percent.
In currency markets the Japanese yen, regarded by investors
as a shelter from turbulence, pulled back from early gains,
notably against the euro. The euro was last up 0.08 percent at
125.93 yen EURJPY= and the dollar turned positive, up 0.29
percent at 112.26 yen JPY= .
The euro EUR= fell 0.2 percent against the dollar to
$1.1217. The dollar .DXY was up 0.37 percent to 95.638 against
a basket of major currencies.
Volume is expected to continue to lessen ahead of the Easter
holiday and investors were beginning to think about cashing in
on a steep rally in stocks over the last few weeks.
Oil prices also steadied after the initial rush to safer
assets, with U.S. crude CLc1 futures off 0.24 percent to
$41.42 a barrel while Brent rebounded from a low of $40.97 to
trade up 0.43 percent at $41.72.
Global assets in 2015 http://link.reuters.com/dub25t
Commodities performance http://link.reuters.com/rac73w
Currencies vs dollar http://link.reuters.com/tak27s
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