* U.S. stocks climb led by dividend heavy sectors, healthcare down
* U.S. Treasury prices rise ahead of ECB meeting
* Banks lead European shares higher, euro edges up vs dollar
* Oil dips on U.S. inventory date, doubts on impact of OPEC deal (Updates with U.S. market close)
By Sinead Carew
NEW YORK, Dec 7 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks jumped to record levels and bond prices climbed on Wednesday as investors prepared for the European Central Bank to signal an extension of its bond-buying at its Thursday meeting.
The euro gained against the dollar as investors also waited for possible indications on when the ECB will begin paring bond purchases under its quantitative easing program.
Such a move might propel bond yields around the world higher. Prices on longer-dated U.S. Treasuries rose Wednesday after disappointing overseas data hurt optimism about global growth.
"The market does not have a lot of clarity on what the ECB would do tomorrow," said Jeffery Elswick, director of fixed income at Frost Investment Advisors in San Antonio, Texas.
The S&P 500 and Dow indexes hit records, with the biggest percentage increases coming from the telecommunications .SPLRCL and REIT .SPLRCREC sectors, heavy dividend payers.
"There's a little bit of a bond market rally going on, certainly in the long end, so that means dividend stocks feel better," said Brian Battle, director of trading at Performance Trust Capital Partners in Chicago. "People are short-covering ahead of the ECB announcements tomorrow. Lower rates on the continent (are) constructive for growth and good for equity."
Healthcare .SPXHC was the sole S&P laggard after President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview he would bring down drug pricing. think it is a new fact of life, going forward, that fundamentals can be swept aside any day by comments from the (President-elect)," said David Donabedian, chief investment officer of Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 297.84 points, or 1.55 percent, to 19,549.62, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 29.12 points, or 1.32 percent, to 2,241.35 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 60.76 points, or 1.14 percent, to 5,393.76.
Oil prices fell on bearish U.S. petroleum inventory data and doubts that production cuts promised by Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia would be enough to drain a global crude glut. crude LCOc1 , the international benchmark, settled down 93 cents at $53 a barrel while U.S. light crude CLc1 settled down $1.16 at $49.77 a barrel.
The euro EUR= edged up 0.4 percent to $1.076. The dollar .DXY fell 0.3 percent against a basket of six major peers, as investors looked to next week's U.S. Federal Reserve meeting. The Fed is expected to raise interest rates but adopt a cautious tone on the economy. benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield US10YT=RR was down 5 basis points from late Tuesday at 2.342 percent. It had reached 2.492 percent on Dec. 1, the highest since July 2015. 30-year yield US30YT=RR was 3.020 percent, down 6 basis points, on track for the biggest one-day drop since Aug. 29 when it fell 7.9 basis points, according to Reuters data. the pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX rose 0.9 percent while Italy's FTSE MIB share index .FTMIB gained 2 percent, helped by banking stocks.
Shares in Monte dei Paschi, Italy's oldest bank, rose 10.8 percent BMPS.MI after Reuters reported on Tuesday that Italy was preparing to take a 2-billion-euro controlling stake in the bank after Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resigned because voters rejected his reform proposals. Graphic: World FX rates in 2016
http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh Global assets in 2016
http://reut.rs/1WAiOSC
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