Shares off in low-volume markets; safe-havens rise

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A wave of risk aversion swept through global markets on Tuesday, with light volume magnifying moves, as end-of-year trades focused on worries about Greece's future in the euro zone, pushing shares lower and lifting the safe-haven yen, silver and gold.

Oil prices hit new 5-1/2 year lows , while copper rose for the first session in five, a day after hitting a 4-1/2 year low.

The Greek government collapsed Monday, setting the stage for elections in four weeks likely to be a referendum on painful austerity policies.

Stocks on Wall Street were lower but just off the S&P 500's latest record high hit Monday. The benchmark index is on track to close a third-straight year of double-digit positive returns.

An MSCI gauge of stocks in major markets <.MIWD00000PUS> fell 0.55 percent, weighed down by a 1.6 percent drop in Tokyo's Nikkei <.N225> for its final session of 2014. European shares <.FTEU3> closed down 1 percent.

"Basically we just followed Europe, with Greece back into the picture, but that is more of an excuse than anything else," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.

"I really don?t put too much into the decline today."

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 74.81 points, or 0.41 percent, to 17,963.42, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 10.73 points, or 0.51 percent, to 2,079.84 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 32.32 points, or 0.67 percent, to 4,774.59.

The thinly traded market, particularly in Europe, triggered a "magnified reaction to headlines from Greece" according to Scott Clemons, chief investment strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman Private Banking in New York.

Greece's 10-year bond yields , a proxy of the government's borrowing costs, ticked lower after a sharp move higher on Monday. The left-wing Syriza party, which could win a snap election next month, has said it wants to abandon many drastic spending cuts that are part of a European Union and International Monetary Fund bailout program.

The weaker stocks helped push U.S. Treasuries prices higher, with some lingering concern over Greece. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was up 6/32, the yield down to 2.188 percent.

"We're trading with equities at the moment," said Ira Jersey, an interest rate strategist at Credit Suisse in New York. But "a lot of times when you get these moves in very thin volumes they reverse once you get some liquidity."

The euro held just above a 2-1/2 year low at $1.2155 as more lackluster bank lending data and fresh evidence of deflation taking hold in Spain and Italy bolstered the case for further monetary easing from the European Central Bank.

The yen gained slightly less than 1 percent against both the dollar and euro as investors sought the traditional safety of the Japanese currency.

Oil prices, another focus for world markets of late, pared losses in volatile trading after earlier extending lows not seen since May 2009. Brent was down 0.4 percent at $57.68 after having hit $56.74 earlier. U.S. crude edged up 0.3 percent to $53.78 a barrel.

The two main market movers today are oversupply from the world's oil producers and a weaker U.S. dollar, said Brian LaRose, a technical analyst with United-ICAP.

But a "significant catalyst" is needed to prompt buying, and LaRose said that has been absent. "Until we see some sort of technical evidence developing, then one has to be skeptical of picking a bottom," he said.

Spot gold rose 1.7 percent while silver added 3.2 percent. Copper bounced from a 4-1/2 year low to gain 0.5 percent at $6,322 a ton.

(Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak, Samantha Sunne, Karen Brettell and Sam Forgione; Editing by Dan Grebler and Christian Plumb)

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