Stocks, dollar rise as risk appetite returns; oil slips

NEW YORK: Wall Street led stocks higher globally on Thursday, despite declines in Asia, as investors focused on an earnings season expected to be strong and after U.S. President Donald Trump cast doubt over the timing of his threatened strike on Syria.

The risk of clashes between Western powers and Russia in Syria over an alleged chemical attack eased somewhat as Trump reworded a Wednesday threat that missiles "will be coming" while taunting Russia for supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Trump wrote Thursday that an attack on Syria "could be very soon or not so soon at all."

Investors turned their focus to corporate earnings as BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, reported quarterly profit above Wall Street estimates. Its shares were up 2.4 percent.

Analysts expect quarterly profit for all S&P 500 companies to rise 18.4 percent from a year ago, the biggest gain in seven years, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"We're seeing some early optimism ahead of earnings and there's no bad news for the moment" said Andre Bakhos, managing director at New Vines Capital LLC in Bernardsville, New Jersey, speaking in part of the "back and forth between Russia and the U.S." on Syria.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 297.58 points, or 1.23 percent, to 24,487.03, the S&P 500 gained 24.82 points, or 0.94 percent, to 2,667.01 and the Nasdaq Composite  added 82.70 points, or 1.17 percent, to 7,151.73.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 0.68 percent and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe  gained 0.42 percent.

Emerging market stocks rose 0.03 percent. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed 0.31 percent lower, while Japan's Nikkei lost 0.12 percent.

The higher risk appetite as geopolitical tensions eased boosted U.S. Treasury yields as bond prices fell. The Japanese yen and crude oil prices also fell.

"There is less immediate concern about military strikes or action in Syria,"  said Jim Vogel, interest rates strategist at FTN Financial in Memphis.

"It doesn't move it to the back-burner, but it allows you to look around and trade other things and that gives room for rates to rise just a little bit from their sort of cramped or compressed levels," he said.

Benchmark 10-year notes last fell 9/32 in price to yield 2.8211 percent, from 2.79 percent late on Wednesday.

The 30-year bond last fell 18/32 in price to yield 3.0327 percent, from 3.005 percent late on Wednesday.

U.S. crude fell 0.57 percent to $66.44 per barrel and Brent was last at $71.44, down 0.86 percent on the day.

The dollar index was on track to snap a four-day losing streak as it rose 0.31 percent, with the euro down 0.39 percent to $1.2317.

"It's a reversal of the safe-haven trade that lifted the yen and the Swiss franc earlier in the week," said Karl Schamotta, director of global product and market strategy at Cambridge Global Payments in Toronto.

The Japanese yen weakened 0.53 percent versus the greenback at 107.38 per dollar, while the dollar was up 0.56 percent against the Swiss franc.

Sterling was last trading at $1.4228, up 0.37 percent on the day.

Safe-haven gold fell from an 11-week high as the dollar gained and investors booked profits.

Spot gold dropped 1.2 percent to $1,336.51 an ounce. U.S. gold futures fell 1.49 percent to $1,339.80 an ounce.

Copper lost 1.88 percent to $6,819.50 a tonne.