Shares rally on corporate results, bond prices fall

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global equity markets edged higher on Wednesday, lifted by a raft of solid corporate results and benign U.S. inflation data that may encourage the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates lower for longer.

Stock gains on Wall Street and Europe were largely driven by earnings, with U.S. tech names among the biggest gainers of the day. Both Yahoo Inc and Broadcom beat revenue expectations late Tuesday, putting the benchmark S&P 500 on track for its biggest five-day rally since December 2011.

Yahoo rose 5.9 percent, Broadcom jumped 6.8 percent and GlaxoSmithKline rose 3.6 percent in London after saying it expects a vaccine against Ebola to be ready later this year.

Both Yahoo and Broadcom beat revenue expectations, while GlaxoSmithKline beat earnings expectations.

So far in Europe, 9 percent of STOXX 600 <.STOXX> companies have reported results, of which 65 percent have met or beaten profit forecasts, according to Thomson Reuters. In the United States, of the 135 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported results, 68.9 percent beat expectations, higher than the rate over the previous four quarters, Thomson Reuters data show.

Limiting equity advances was Boeing Co , which dipped 0.9 percent despite reporting higher-than-expected earnings and raising its outlook. The stock fell amid concerns about signs that the costs of the 787 Dreamliner were creeping higher.

"The season has been mixed, and the global economy is a concern for big multinational companies, but the fact that the market can shake off some bad reports is indicative of what good footing it is on right now," said Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Robert W. Baird & Co in Nashville.

MSCI's all-country world stock index <.MIWD00000PUS> rose 0.37 percent, while the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> was up 0.57 percent at 1,306.63.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 7.99 points, or 0.05 percent, to 16,622.8. The S&P 500 <.SPX> added 4.43 points, or 0.23 percent, to 1,945.71 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> gained 10.42 points, or 0.24 percent, to 4,429.89.

U.S. Treasuries prices fell as data showed a mild rebound in domestic consumer prices in September. The reading reduced some bets the Fed might postpone possible plans to raise policy rates in 2015.

The Labor Department said CPI rose 0.1 percent last month as increasing food and shelter costs offset a broad decline in energy prices.

This less dire view on inflation spurred selling in Treasuries, with yields on the benchmark 10-year Treasury rising to their highest in a week near 2.25 percent.

The 10-year was last down 5/32 in price to yield 2.2234 percent.

Crude prices retreated after data form the U.S government's Energy Information Administration showed a big rise in crude oil inventories.

Brent crude fell 10 cents at $86.12 a barrel. U.S. crude fell 40 cents to $82.09.

The U.S. dollar extended broad-based gains after marginally higher-than-expected U.S. inflation data coupled with earlier concerns over European banks sent the greenback to one-week highs against the euro.

The euro was down 0.39 percent at $1.2664, after dropping to a fresh one-week low of $1.2657. The dollar traded at 107.21 yen, a gain of 0.22 percent .

(Additional reporting by Marius Zaharia, reporting by Herbert Lash; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)

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