* European, U.S. stocks shrug off China fall
* UK GDP, U.S. Fed in focus
* Commodities under pressure
By Jamie McGeever
LONDON, July 28 (Reuters) - Stocks rose on Tuesday, with
Europe snapping a five-day losing streak as investors shrugged
off further weakness in commodity markets and Chinese shares to
focus on more encouraging merger activity and earnings.
Oil languished at four-month lows and China's benchmark
stocks fell for a third straight day, but developed market
equities and commodity currencies recovered.
In early European trading the FTSEuroFirst 300 index of
leading European shares was up 0.5 percent at 1,537 points
.FTEU3 .
Germany's DAX .GDAXI , France's CAC 40 .FCHI and
Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE were all up around 0.5 percent too,
while S&P futures pointed to similar gains at the open on Wall
Street SPc1 .
"The latest count on our earnings monitor shows
earnings-per-share beats at 76 percent," said Jim Reid, market
strategist at Deutsche Bank (XETRA:DBKGn).
Among the main movers, RSA Insurance Group RSA.L surged
12.9 percent after Zurich Insurance ZURN.VX said it was
weighing up a bid for the British group with a market
capitalization of 4.4 billion pounds ($6.85 billion).
ID:nL5N108159
Earlier, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares
outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS ended the day 0.2 percent higher
after falling nearly 1 percent early on, touching its lowest
level since July 9. ID:nL3N1081IT
Tokyo's Nikkei .N225 ended 0.1 percent lower.
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.
Since hitting a peak in early June, Chinese shares have gone
through a roller-coaster ride with main indexes plummeting by a
third in less than a month before rebounding by a quarter, only
to then have their biggest one-day fall since 2007 on Monday.
ID:nL3N1081IT
Authorities in Beijing said they will step up efforts to
shore up the market, something which could help soothe nerves in
Western markets as well.
"The recent debasement seems to have revived hopes of having
the central bank putting more money on the table, not only to
support the stock prices but to prevent stock price volatility
from hitting the real economy," said Ipek Ozkardeskaya
Market Analyst, London Capital Group.
OIL SLIDES
The main economic indicator for investors on Tuesday will be
Britain's first snapshot of economic activity in the second
quarter. Economists expect gross domestic product to have
expanded by 0.7 percent, up from 0.4 percent in the first
quarter.
The U.S. Federal Reserve begins its two-day policy meeting.
No move on rates is expected this week, so close attention will
be paid to whether Fed chair Janet Yellen signals September or
December is the most likely date for "liftoff".
The dollar was higher against many of its key rivals,
including the euro and yen, with the consensus for the first
U.S. rate hike in almost a decade still revolving around
September.
The euro was down a quarter of a percent at $1.1060 EUR= ,
slipping back from a two-week high of $1.1129 overnight, and the
dollar was up a third of one percent against the yen at 123.60
yen JPY= .
The greenback was under pressure against commodity
currencies such as the Australian AUD= and New Zealand dollars
NZD= , however, which were up around 0.5 percent and 1.0
percent, respectively.
Sterling was steady at $1.5545 GBP= ahead of Q2 GDP, the
first of all G7 GDP reports.
Oil struggled at four-month lows after the Chinese stock
market crash fuelled worries the world's biggest energy consumer
may cut back and as more evidence emerged of a global crude
supply glut. O/R
U.S. crude CLc1 was down more than 1 percent at $46.83 a
barrel, its lowest since late March, while Brent was down almost
2 percent at $52.40 LCOc1 .
The price of copper CMCU3 , heavily influenced by demand
from key consumer China, recovered slightly to $5,213 a tonne on
the London Metal Exchange. On Monday it fell to $5,177 a tonne,
a six-year low.
The broader Thomson Reuters CRB commodities index .TRJCRB
also hit a six-year low overnight.
Bond yields edged higher, with the 10-year U.S. Treasuries
yield up 2 basis points at 2.25 percent US10YT=RR and similar
rises in UK and German yields.