* Europe shares follow Asia higher, focus on commodity firms
* Dollar falls further vs major currencies
* Oil adds to Wednesday's hefty rises
(Updates prices, adds comment)
By Nigel Stephenson and Marius Zaharia
LONDON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Stocks advanced in Europe and Asia
on Thursday, with the focus on energy companies as speculation
U.S. interest rates may not rise at all this year left the
dollar nursing hefty losses and oil held most of the previous
day's big gains.
U.S. stock futures SPc1 pointed to a higher open on the
Wall Street as well.
The dollar fell sharply on Wednesday after weak U.S. data
and comments from a Fed policymaker interpreted as signalling
further rate hikes could be delayed.
The U.S. currency fell 0.7 percent against a basket of its
peers .DXY on Thursday and was on track for its deepest weekly
fall since mid 2009. It hit a 3-1/2 month low against the euro
and held close to its weakest for a week against the Japanese
yen JPY= .
"The dollar is on its knees," said Richard Benson, head of
portfolio management with currency fund Millennium in London.
"Probably we will now have some stability ahead of U.S. payrolls
tomorrow."
Dollar weakness, and unconfirmed talk that oil-producing
countries in and outside the OPEC group may meet soon to discuss
output cuts, helped crude prices add to Wednesday's sharp gains.
Brent, the global benchmark LCOc1 , was up 35 cents at
$35.39 a barrel, having fallen as low as $27.10 in mid-January.
Commodity-related shares pushed higher in Europe. The
pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 rose 0.6 percent
while the STOXX Europe 600 Basic Resources Index .SXPP gained
4.9 percent and oil and gas index .SXEP 3.2 percent.
Shares in Anglo American AAL.L , Glencore GLEN.L , BHP
Billiton BLT.L and BP BP.L rose 3.5 to 11 percent.
Britain's miner-heavy FTSE 100 index .FTSE rose 1.4
percent. On the debit side, Swiss bank Credit Suisse CSGN.VX
slid 10 percent after posting its first full-year loss since
2008.
"Now we see that the U.S. dollar has broken down quite
significantly and based on the cross-asset correlation, that
certainly helps commodity prices and stocks," said Gerhard
Schwarz, head of equity strategy at Baader Bank in Munich.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS jumped 2.3 percent. Australia's resource-rich
index .AXJO rose 2.2 percent.
Tokyo's Nikkei .N225 fell 0.9 percent, pressured by a
stronger yen, which harms exporters, and by weak earnings
forecasts from leading companies.
Chinese shares gained, with the CSI300 .CSI300 index
closing 1.2 percent higher as the weaker dollar eased concerns
of a sharp near-term depreciation in the yuan currency CNY= .
Stocks globally have had a rough start to 2016, hurt by
tepid U.S. growth, falling oil prices, and concern the world
faces a China-led slowdown.
But another potential worry -- that the U.S. Federal Reserve
would keep raising interest rates throughout 2016 -- has receded
somewhat.
Fed policymaker William Dudley told Market News
International in an interview published on Wednesday that
monetary conditions had tightened since the Fed raised rates on
Dec. 3. and that rate-setters would have to take this into
account.
Investors interpreted this as meaning future rate rises
might be delayed. The federal fund futures market FFZ6
indicates traders no longer expect a Fed hike this year.
Sterling GBP= retreated from a one-month high against the
dollar after the minutes from the Bank of England's latest
policy meeting showed the lone policymaker voting for a rate
hike dropped his call. In its Quarterly Inflation Report
released simultaneously, the BoE cut its economic growth
forecasts. GBP/
The euro was up 0.6 percent at $1.1170, having firmed by
about 2 percent on Wednesday.
LOW-RISK
Stock market strength lessened the appeal of low-risk,
low-reward government debt. Yields on German 10-year Bunds
DE10YT=TWEB , the euro zone benchmark for borrowing costs, rose
4 basis points to 0.32 percent.
Ten-year U.S. Treasury yields US10YT=RR edged up 2 basis
point to 1.90 percent.
"The pressure from oil is easing...and tranquillity is
returning to other markets so we can expect a bit of a step back
from bonds, and yields should trend higher," KBC strategist Piet
Lammens said.
The revised U.S. rate outlook lifted gold XAU= , which hit
a three-month high at $1,147.40 an ounce.