* Equities flat from early losses
* Travel sector stocks weak after attacks
* Gold, yen and Treasury bonds strength eases
(Adds close of U.S. markets, oil settlement prices)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW York, March 22 (Reuters) - Global equity markets were
little changed, regrouping from early losses while safe-haven
gold and government bonds eased from higher levels on Tuesday
following 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,
with police hunting a suspect who fled the air
terminal.
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 0.9
percent and was on track for its first decline in five sessions.
Cruise ship operators Royal Caribbean RCL.N , down 2.9 percent
and Carnival Corp (NYSE:CCL) CCL.N , down 2.1 percent, were among the
worst performers on the S&P 500.
Those declines were offset by gains in Apple AAPL.O , up
0.8 percent to $106.72 and a 0.9 percent gain in the healthcare
.SPXHC sector.
"The news obviously has been dominated by what has gone on
in Brussels, but experience tells us not only is it the morally
right thing to do to basically not overreact, it also turns out
to be the most profitable thing to do," said David Kelly, chief
global strategist at JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) Funds in New York.
"The objective of terrorists is to disrupt and, to the
extent that they can, do horrible things but at least we have
the small victory that they have not disrupted global financial
markets today."
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 41.3 points, or
0.23 percent, to 17,582.57, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 1.8 points,
or 0.09 percent, to 2,049.8 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC
added 12.79 points, or 0.27 percent, to 4,821.66.
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 down 0.03 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.
Volume is expected to continue to diminish 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.
Gold XAU= was up 0.31 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 down 6/32
in price to yield 1.9403 percent after falling as low as 1.879
percent as Chicago's Federal Reserve president struck a bullish
tone on the U.S. economy.
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 0.14 percent at
126.01 yen EURJPY= and the dollar turned positive, up 0.3
percent at 112.27 yen JPY= .
The euro EUR= fell 0.16 percent against the dollar to
$1.1221. The dollar .DXY was up 0.33 percent to 95.606 against
a basket of major currencies.
Oil prices also steadied after the initial rush to safer
assets, with U.S. crude CLc1 settling down 0.17 percent to
$41.45 a barrel while Brent rebounded from a low of $40.97 to
settle up 0.6 percent at $41.79.
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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