* European shares edge lower as Credit Suisse weighs
* Dollar falls further vs major currencies
* Materials sector rallies as Wall St advances
(Adds close of European markets)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Global equity markets rose on
Thursday as diminished expectations of U.S. interest rate hikes
this year pushed the dollar lower, which in turned boosted the
prices of commodities.
The dollar .DXY fell for a fourth day on the latest batch
of soft U.S. data, while comments from a U.S. Federal Reserve
policymaker on Wednesday were viewed as a sign further rate
hikes could be delayed.
Those comments were buttressed on Thursday by Robert Kaplan,
the new head of the Dallas Fed, who said the central bank should
be "patient" on rate increases.
The recent weakness in the greenback has provided investors
the incentive to take profits in successful trades against
commodities and emerging markets, which had suffered after a run
higher by the dollar.
"The market is starting to price in anything that is the
reverse of the Fed tightening," said Andrew Slimmon, portfolio
manager at Morgan Stanley (N:MS) Investment Management in Chicago.
"That has implications for obviously oil, but also
currencies that continue to weaken relative to the dollar, which
is mainly the commodity oriented currencies and emerging
markets."
The U.S. currency fell 0.8 percent against a basket of major
currencies .DXY on Thursday and is down 3 percent for the
week, on pace for its worst week since May 2009. It hit a 3-1/2
month low against the euro EUR= and held close to a two-week
low against the Japanese yen JPY= .
Oil was volatile, fluctuating between gains and losses,
following a sharp climb in the prior session, as investors
assessed the potential for talks on a production cut.
Brent, the global benchmark LCOc1 , was down 0.9 percent at
$34.73 a barrel, after hitting a high of $35.84 earlier in the
day, while U.S. crude CLc1 was off 0.43 percent at after
reaching a high of $33.60.
The fall in the dollar also helped push metals higher, with
copper CMCU3 and zinc CMZN3 both up more than 1 percent. In
turn, that lifted emerging markets, whose economies are highly
depending on commodities. The MSCI emerging markets index
.MSCIEF climbed 2.8 percent.
European shares dipped, with the pan-European FTSEurofirst
300 index .FTEU3 off 0.15 percent, weighed down by a drop of
nearly 11 percent in Credit Suisse CSGN.VX , which reported a
full-year loss. Commodity-related shares surged, however, as the
STOXX Europe 600 Basic Resources Index .SXPP jumped 7.3
percent and the oil and gas index .SXEP climbed 3.3 percent.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 75.6 points, or
0.46 percent, to 16,412.26, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 4.67
points, or 0.24 percent, to 1,917.2 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC added 7.06 points, or 0.16 percent, to 4,511.30.
The U.S. gains were led by a 2.4-percent climb in the
materials sector .SPLRCM while energy .SPNY advanced 0.4
percent. The MSCI World equity index .MIWD00000PUS rose 0.8
percent.
Stocks globally have had a dismal start to 2016, smacked by
tepid U.S. growth, falling oil prices, and concern the world
faces a China-led slowdown.
However, another potential worry, that the U.S. Federal
Reserve would stay on course for four interest rate hikes in
2016, has eased somewhat.
Ten-year U.S. Treasury yields US10YT=RR advanced 4/32
basis point to 1.8687 percent.
Gold XAU= , was last up 1.2 percent at $1,156.03 after
hitting a three-month high at $1,157 an ounce.