World stocks snap six-day decline; commodities rally

Traders at IG Index look at their screens at their offices in the City of London March 15, 2011.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. and European shares rebounded on Thursday after a six-day slide and oil prices jumped, while the euro slipped against the dollar after the European Central Bank left its inflation forecast for next year unchanged.

Data showing record U.S. exports in April tempered worries about a stalling economic recovery and prompted investors to pick up beaten-down shares. Commodity-linked stocks led the advance as oil, gold and silver prices climbed.

World stocks as measured by the MSCI world equity index .MIWD00000PUS rose 0.4 percent. The Thomson Reuters global stock index .TRXFLDGLPU gained 0.3 percent.

"You're seeing exports picking up pretty dramatically, a positive data point, and a market that had gone down six days in a row," said Eric Kuby, chief investment officer of North Star Investment Management Corp in Chicago. "You finally have a day with a reason for people to start buying stocks again. The appetite has come back."

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI ended up 75.42 points, or 0.63 percent, at 12,124.36. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX was up 9.44 points, or 0.74 percent, at 1,289.00. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC was up 9.49 points, or 0.35 percent, at 2,684.87.

Shares of Fusion-io Inc (FIO.N), which makes storage memory hardware and software for data centers, jumped 18 percent in their first day of trading.

The FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares advanced 0.9 percent to close at 1,104.43, gaining for the first session since May 31.

Oil prices rallied on concerns about supply a day after OPEC failed to agree on an increase in production targets.

Brent crude settled at a five-week high of $119.57 a barrel, up $1.72 on the day. U.S. crude rose $1.19 to settle at $101.93, having hit $102.44.

Spot gold was last up at $1,544.40 an ounce as gains in crude oil and grain prices heightened fears of higher inflation and boosted bullion's allure. Silver was up 2 percent at $37.56 an ounce.

The price of U.S. corn soared to a record high of $7.93 per bushel after a government report said poor spring planting conditions reduced this year's crop potential and will squeeze already tight market supplies.

The Reuters-Jefferies CRB index .CRB, a global benchmark for commodities, was up 0.7 percent.

EURO'S SLIDE, GREEK BONDS

The euro tumbled to a session low at $1.44777 on trading platform EBS and was last trading at $1.4509, down 0.5 percent on the day.

The European Central Bank left benchmark interest rates unchanged at 1.25 percent. While ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet did signal that rates would rise again next month, the move had already been priced into the market.

The ECB left its 2012 inflation forecast unchanged at 1.7 percent, below some forecasts. The steady inflation view suggested the euro zone's pace of rate increases could slow.

Investors pared back their outlook for total rate hikes in the euro zone to about 75 basis points over the next 12 months, from around 80 before Trichet's press briefing.

A lack of detail about a new bailout package for Greece and the possibility of write-offs in the banking sector in the event of a Greek debt restructuring also soured sentiment.

Moody's said it would be tough to imagine private creditors participating voluntarily in a debt restructuring.

"It feels like selling euro upticks against the dollar will remain the bias, not least because the expected rate hike signal is out of the way and it is clear that many major decisions on how to navigate the Greek crisis have not been taken in either Athens or other European capitals," said Alan Ruskin, global head of G10 currency strategy at Deutsche Bank.

A new international bailout being put together for Greece is likely to total around 120 billion euros, euro zone official sources said on Thursday. That was higher than the 90 billion euro figure previously suggested by officials.

U.S. government debt prices fell after an unenthusiastic bid for the Treasury's $13 billion auction of reopened 30-year bonds. Prices also came under pressure as investors looked for bargains in stocks. Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields were last at 3 percent, after dipping to 2.92 percent earlier, marking the lowest since early December.

(Additional reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss, Steven C. Johnson, Rodrigo Campos and Ellen Freilich; Editing by Dan Grebler)