* Record highs on Wall St, driven by tax bill hopes, M&A flurry
* Dollar under pressure on U.S. tax reform concerns
* Oil gains as Forties outage, Nigeria strike threaten supply
* Gold ticks higher as nerves over U.S. tax bill hit dollar
* U.S. yield curve flattening marches on (Updates with open of U.S. markets; changes byline, dateline; previous LONDON)
By Laila Kearney
NEW YORK, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Top world stock markets climbed to record highs on Monday as U.S. Republican lawmakers moved closer to passing a tax plan, while the dollar slid on concerns about the bill's impact on economic growth and interest rates.
Leading Republicans said they expected Congress to vote as early as Tuesday on the bill, which would become the biggest U.S. tax code overhaul in more than three decades if approved. President Donald Trump is aiming to sign the plan into law at the end of the week.
Wall Street's leading indices struck all-time highs in early trading ahead of a potential vote, which would lower the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. market is going to continue its rally based on the belief that we're going to see the Congress pass tax reform," said Robert Pavlik, Chief Investment Strategist at SlateStone Wealth in New York.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 183.5 points, or 0.74 percent, to 24,835.24, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 17.09 points, or 0.64 percent, to 2,692.9 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 58.03 points, or 0.84 percent, to 6,994.61
The benchmark MSCI World index .MIWD00000PUS , which tracks stocks around the globe, gained 0.97 percent to a record high. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 rose 1.19 percent.
Meanwhile, the dollar index .DXY fell 0.39 percent after initially inching up following the tax plan's latest advancement.
U.S. currency traders began to speculate how impactful the pro-growth bill could be and whether it would accelerate interest rate increases by the U.S. Federal Reserve, above the two currently anticipated by the market. euro EUR= was up 0.44 percent to $1.1804.
The greenback's weakening propelled gold higher as the dollar-denominated bullion became cheaper for buyers using other currencies. nL4N1OI38E
Spot gold XAU= added 0.6 percent to $1,262.52 an ounce. U.S. gold futures GCcv1 gained 0.67 percent to $1,265.90 an ounce.
The gap between U.S. shorter-dated and longer-dated Treasury yields contracted to its smallest in a decade on expectations the government would increase its short-term borrowing with the possible passage of the tax cut bill. prices LCOc1 rose amid an ongoing North Sea pipeline outage and as a strike by Nigerian oil workers threatened the country's crude exports. crude CLcv1 rose 0.19 percent to $57.41 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $63.46, up 0.36 percent on the day.
Bitcoin BTX=BTSP was down 1.3 percent to $18,703.96 on the Bitstamp exchange after rising to a record of $19,666 over the weekend, ahead of CME Group Inc's CME.O launch of bitcoin futures on Sunday. GRAPHIC-World FX rates in 2017
http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh GRAPHIC-Global assets in 2017
http://tmsnrt.rs/2yaWht3 GRAPHIC-Global market cap
http://reut.rs/2mcp7T1 GRAPHIC-Emerging markets in 2017
http://tmsnrt.rs/2ihRugV
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