Oil, gold up as dollar weakens; stocks fall

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude oil edged higher and gold prices rose on Tuesday on the back of a softer U.S. dollar, while earnings hurt Wall Street and helped drag a gauge of major global stock markets lower.

Spot gold prices halted a plunge of nearly 6 percent in the past six days, after hitting a five-year low on Monday as investors dumped inflation hedges. A stronger U.S. dollar and Greece looking to seal a bailout deal added to the bearish catalysts for the metal.

U.S. crude oil futures rose after slipping under $50 a barrel, while Brent remained toward the bottom of its $55-$60 a barrel range, near its lowest since early April.

Stocks on Wall Street fell, with results from bellwethers IBM and United Technologies weighing the most on the S&P 500, while Apple was also down ahead of its earnings report, expected after the closing bell.

Of the 81 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings, 70 percent have been above analyst expectations while just 53 percent have beaten on revenue.

"We remain cautious regarding earnings because there is a lack of revenue growth," said John Toohey, head of equities at USAA Investments in San Antonio, Texas.

"For the bull market to be sustainable, we need to transition from financial engineering to organic revenue growth."

At 1:00 p.m. EDT the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was down 202.47 points, or 1.12 percent, to 17,897.94, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 9.43 points, or 0.44 percent, to 2,118.85 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 11.41 points, or 0.22 percent, to 5,207.45.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares <.FTEU3> was down 1.1 percent after rising 9.3 percent in the previous nine sessions. MSCI's gauge of major global stock markets <.MIWD00000PUS> slipped 0.2 percent.

EURO UP BUT DOLLAR SEEN STRONG

The euro bounced back against the dollar after hitting a three-month low on Monday. It was last up 1.2 percent at $1.0952 and the dollar index <.DXY>, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, fell 0.8 percent.

The dollar strength is seen returning in the short term on expectation of rate differentials, as the U.S. Federal Reserve prepares to raise interest rates by year-end.

"The tension is fading on the euro down there," said David Rodriguez, quantitative strategist at FXCM in New York. "The dollar is still in control."

Spot gold added 0.9 percent on the day to $1,106.28 after sliding toward $1,088 on Monday.

Oil prices edged up as the U.S. dollar slipped, but were set for large monthly drops in the face of a global supply glut.

Brent crude futures were up 1 cent at $56.66 a barrel. U.S. crude futures rose 10 cents to $50.25.

U.S. Treasuries prices rose as stocks fell, with reduced concerns over Greece's debt crisis keeping gains in check.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes were last up 9/32 in price to yield 2.3416 percent, from 2.374 late Monday. U.S. 30-year bonds were last up 16/32 to yield 3.0812 percent, from a yield of 3.106 percent late Monday.

(Additional reporting by Tanya Agrawal, Richard Leong and Sam Forgione; Editing by Dan Grebler)

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