* Dollar gains on Fed rate hike hopes, data
* U.S. Treasury yields mostly up
* Dollar pushes commodities to near six-year lows
By Michael Connor
NEW YORK, July 30 (Reuters) - The dollar traded at one-week
highs and shorter-term U.S. Treasury yields rose on Thursday as
accelerating U.S. gross domestic product data encouraged bets
that policymakers will start hiking U.S. interest rates as soon
as September.
Wall Street was mostly lower in part due to soft corporate
earnings reports, while oil prices shrugged off earlier drag
from the dollar's gains and edged higher on an unexpectedly big
drop in U.S. oil inventories.
The euro fell 0.70 percent against the dollar to $1.0909,
which helped the dollar index .DXY rise 0.70 percent at 97.641
after touching 97.773, its highest since July 22.
"The latest GDP report confirms the Fed's narrative that the
first-quarter weakness was transitory. The bar for them to
hiking rates is not very high," said Ian Gordon, G10 currency
strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (NYSE:BAC) in New York
Data showed economic growth in the United States accelerated
in the second quarter, backed by solid consumer demand, to a 2.3
percent annual rate. While slightly below economists'
expectations for 2.6 percent growth, the data still pointed to
firming domestic fundamentals. ID:nLNNUIEBDP
The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday described the economy
as expanding "moderately," with improvements in housing and the
labor market. That left the door open for a possible hike in
interest rates in September, which would be the first rise since
2006.
Treasury prices, which move in the opposite direction of
yields, were mostly off. Price declines were largest in 3-year
and 5-year maturities, while benchmark 10-year Treasuries
US10YT=RR were last up 2/32 of a point in price, pushing the
yield to 2.2697 percent.
Wall Street's Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was last
off 1.96 points, or 0.01 percent, to 17,749.43, the S&P 500
.SPX was down 0.54 points, or 0.03 percent, to 2,108.03 and
the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC rose 17.30 points, or 0.34 percent,
to 5,129.04.
Procter & Gamble's PG.N 3.7 percent fall dragged down the
Dow, after the company reported a sixth straight quarter of
lower sales. Facebook FB.O shares fell 3.9 percent after the
social media company's profit fell.
Europe's main stock markets 0#.INDEXE held on to a third
day of gains as results from Siemens SIEGn.DE , Nokia
NOK1V.HE and Deutsche Bank DBKGn.DE and a rise in euro
zone-wide sentiment boosted the mood. ECONG7 .EU
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 closed up 0.6
percent.
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Global assets in 2015: http://link.reuters.com/dub25t
European bourses in 2015 http://link.reuters.com/pap87v
Currencies vs dollar: http://link.reuters.com/tak27s
World interest rates: http://link.reuters.com/xyb96s
Oil prices: http://link.reuters.com/beb23v
Commodities performance: http://link.reuters.com/rac73w
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
With the dollar flexing its muscles again, commodity markets
were back under pressure, with copper CMCU3 , considered a
bellwether for global economic activity, trading near a six-year
low at $5,259 a tonne. MET/L
The broad Thomson Reuters CRB commodities index .TRJCRB
hit a fresh six-year low before recovering some ground. Gold
flirted with a 5-1/2-year low at $1,089 an ounce as its appeal
ahead of potentially higher global interest rates remained in
question.
Oil prices, smarting from rising U.S. shale oil output and
an easing of sanctions on Iran, fared slightly better, having
bounced on Wednesday following an unexpectedly large weekly
drawdown in U.S. crude inventories. O/R
Front-month Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up 0.20 percent
at $53.47 a barrel, and U.S. crude was near flat at $48.80
having pulled away from Tuesday's 4-1/2-month low. They have
both lost more than 15 percent in July.