Global stocks end losing streak as China fears ease

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. and European stocks were on track to snap five-day losing streaks on Tuesday, as investors focused on earnings news and mergers and looked past another fall in Chinese equities and sliding oil prices.

Safe-haven government bonds eased in price, while the dollar rallied on growing expectations the Federal Reserve could take a hawkish bias toward raising interest rates in a policy statement due on Wednesday.

Wall Street's Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 37.21 points, or 0.21 percent, to 17,477.8 in early trade, the S&P 500 <.SPX> was up 5.8 points, or 0.28 percent, to 2,073.44 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 1.78 points, or 0.04 percent, to 5,041.56.

United Parcel Service shares jumped more than 3.5 percent and Ford gained 1.5 percent after each reported better-than-forecast profits.

Merger news helped lift European stocks, with the FTSEuroFirst 300 index of leading European shares up 0.90 percent at 1,543 points <.FTEU3>.

RSA Insurance Group jumped 11 percent after Zurich Insurance said it was considering a bid for the British group, which has a market capitalization of 4.4 billion pounds ($6.9 billion).

Shares in Kering meanwhile surged 6.6 percent after Gucci, the flagship brand of the French luxury and sportswear group, posted a 4.6 percent rise in underlying second-quarter sales.

"For me, China is a short blip rather than a real slowdown. What we are hearing from company management is pretty buoyant," said Ingo Speich, portfolio manager at Union Investment in Frankfurt.

The main China indexes fell again, although by nowhere near as much as Monday's 8.5 percent plunge. The Shanghai market benchmark <.SSEC> closed 1.7 percent lower.

The Fed kicked off a two-day policy meeting on Tuesday. No immediate change in interest rates is expected, so attention will focus on whether Fed Chair Janet Yellen signals September or December as the most likely date for a rate increase.

Oil remained under pressure. Brent crude futures hit a new six-month low after Monday's Chinese stock market crash stoked worries the world's biggest energy consumer may cut back demand, adding to a global supply glut. [O/R]

Brent fell as much as 2 percent to $52.28 , a level not seen since Feb. 2. U.S. crude was down 0.35 percent to $47.27 a barrel after touching its lowest since late March.

The price of copper , heavily influenced by demand from key consumer China, recovered from Monday's six-year low and was up 1 percent at $5,245 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange.

In currency markets, the dollar rose against many of its key rivals, including the euro and yen, as traders bet that the first U.S. rate hike in almost a decade is still likely to come in September.

The euro fell 0.5 percent at $1.1035 , almost a full cent down from Monday's two-week high of $1.1129, and the dollar was up 0.35 percent against the yen at 123.66 yen .

Bond yields edged higher, with the 10-year U.S. Treasuries off 8/32 in price and yielding 2.2571 percent . The comparable UK yield rose 3 basis points, while the yield on the 10-year German Bund was up 2 basis points.

(Additional Reporting by Jamie McGeever; and Lionel Laurent; Editing by Larry King and Meredith Mazzilli)

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