Shares rise on strong earnings reports, Greece relief

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks worldwide rose on Thursday on strong corporate earnings reports and relief over Greece's debt issues, while the U.S. dollar rallied on expectations the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates this year.

U.S. stocks advanced and European shares hit a more than six-week high after the Greek parliament passed austerity measures demanded by its lenders to open talks on a new bailout package to keep Greece in the euro.

Strong quarterly reports from U.S. bluechip companies also helped U.S. shares, while European stocks got a boost after the European Central Bank pressed ahead with its economic stimulus program, agreed to more funding for Greek banks, and promised further action if necessary.

While the political climate in Greece remained fragile, with the International Monetary Fund saying this week that the country's debt is unsustainable, investors were willing to give a cautious thumbs-up to the Greek parliament's approval of the bailout plan.

"Now that Greece has been taken care of for the time being, the focus has shifted to what's happening on the ground in the U.S.," said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott.

MSCI's all-country world equity index <.MIWD00000PUS>, which tracks shares in 45 nations, was last up 0.61 percent at 431.63.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was last up 0.17 percent at 18080.57. The S&P 500 <.SPX> was up 0.60 percent at 2120.05, and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> was last up 0.90 percent at 5144.976.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index <.FTEU3> of top regional shares was last up 1.39 percent at 1608.50, near a more than six-week high of 1,613.61 hit earlier.

The dollar index <.DXY>, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, rallied to a more than seven-week high of 97.756 after Fed Chair Janet Yellen said on Wednesday that an interest rate hike is likely this year.

Yellen is due to testify to the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday.

The euro hit $1.08550 , a more than seven-week low against the dollar. The favorable interest rate outlook led safe-haven Treasury yields to edge higher, with benchmark 10-year Treasuries prices last down 5/32 in price to yield 2.37 percent, from a yield of 2.35 percent late Wednesday. Yields move inversely to prices.

"People are realizing what (Yellen) said, that every meeting is on the table going forward, and thinking maybe we shouldn?t be long the front-end," said Charles Comiskey, head of Treasuries trading at Bank of Nova Scotia in New York.

Brent crude oil prices rose after a power outage closed the UK's largest oilfield. Data also showed a fall in crude inventories and strong demand from refineries in the United States.

Brent crude for August was last up 66 cents at $57.71 a barrel. U.S. light crude , also known as West Texas Intermediate or WTI, was last down 19 cents at $51.21.

Spot gold prices hit an eight-month low of $1,142.10 on the expected 2015 Fed rate hike.

(Additional reporting by Jamie McGeever in London and Karen Brettell in New York and Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Zieminski)