Global stocks rally as Buffett boosts Apple, oil eyes $50

By Jamie McGeever

LONDON (Reuters) - World shares rose on Tuesday as technology giant Apple Inc's biggest rise in over two months and oil's march higher to within sight of $50 a barrel boosted investor demand for riskier assets at the expense of safe-haven bonds.

The major European stock markets rose around 1 percent in early trading, following similar gains in Asia after Wall Street also chalked up a 1 percent rise on Monday.

MSCI's index of global shares rose 0.4 percent (MIWD00000PUS), putting it on track for its second consecutive rise, something it has not managed in a month.

Investors will be looking to see how long the rally is sustained for and whether Brent crude oil futures, at their highest level in almost six months, can break above $50 for the first time since Nov. 4.

"The strong finish for U.S. markets has seen a similarly positive European open today," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, adding that investors would also look to UK and U.S. inflation data later on Tuesday for direction.

The FTSEuroFirst 300 index of leading European shares was up 1 percent at 1,329 points (FTEU3), with Germany's DAX 1.1 percent (GDAXI) higher, France's CAC 40 up 1 percent (FCHI) and Britain's FTSE 100 (FTSE) gaining 0.8 percent.

The basic resources sector (SXPP) led the way, rising almost 3 percent, while financials were around 2 percent higher (SX7P).

In Asia earlier, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (MIAPJ0000PUS) rose 0.8 percent, extending its recovery from a two-month low set on Friday. Japan's Nikkei (N225) gained about 1.1 percent.

U.S. stock futures pointed to a rise of around 0.3 percent at the open on Wall Street.

FOOL'S BLACK GOLD

Shares in Apple (O:AAPL) finished 3.7 percent higher on Monday after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (N:BRKa) reported taking a stake of about $1 billion in the iPhone maker. Apple shares had lost about one-fifth of their value in the past month on worries about the company's slowing sales growth.

Oil's rise to six-month highs came as supply disruptions prompted long-time bear Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) to issue a bullish assessment on near-term prices. Goldman has long warned of global storage hitting capacity and of another oil price crash to as low as $20 per barrel.

A combination of Nigerian, Venezuelan and other outages, declining U.S. production, and virtually frozen inflows of Canadian crude after wildfires in Alberta's oil sands region all helped to lift oil prices.

"The oil market continues to make an even larger fool of most forecasters than other financial assets: having caught everyone out by plummeting, it is now catching us out by continuing to rise," Rabobank analysts wrote.

Brent crude futures (LCOc1) rose 0.7 percent to $49.31 per barrel, after having risen 2.4 percent on Monday, touching $49.47, its highest since early November.

U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures (CLc1) went up 1.1 percent to $48.24, having risen 3.3 percent on Monday.

Concerns about a slowdown in the Chinese economy could weigh on Asian shares, however, after data published on Saturday showed investment, factory output and retail sales all grew more slowly than expected in April.

In the currency market, the British pound rose 0.8 percent to $1.4515 helped in part by a report that the "In" campaign held a 15-point lead over rival "Out" ahead of Britain's June 23 referendum on European Union membership.

The dollar was little changed against the euro at $1.1320 , but rose 0.4 percent against the yen to 109.44 yen as investors took a 'risk on' stance on Tuesday.

The Australian dollar rose nearly 1 percent to $0.7345 , its best day in over a month, after minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia's May policy meeting were less dovish in tone than many investors had expected.

Bond yields were mostly higher, with U.S. yields up a basis point across the curve (US2YT=RR) (US10YT=RR) and benchmark euro zone yields up around 2 basis points .