* U.S. Treasuries nearly flat
* Wall Street off as retail earnings disappoint
* Investors warily eye Thailand martial law declaration (Updates prices, adds oil closing prices)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, May 20 (Reuters) - Global stock indexes declinedon Tuesday after weaker-than-expected earnings, while the dollarfell for a fifth straight session against the yen.
Retailers such as TJX Companies, which postedlower-than-expected quarterly revenue, were among the biggestdrags on U.S. stocks, along with Caterpillar, which saidretail statistics for the three months to April were down 13percent.
A persistent fall in U.S. Treasury yields, reflecting uncertainty about global economic growth, has undermined thedollar. But U.S. Treasuries were mostly flat.
"There's a little bit of risk-off sentiment given thedeclines in stocks," said Kim Rupert, managing director forfixed income at Action Economics in San Francisco.
Concerns surrounding Ukraine remained an "undercurrent," shesaid.
MSCI's all-world equity index, which tracksshares in 45 nations, was down 0.4 percent, while Europeanshares closed down 0.1 percent.
Vodafone shares fell after the company wrote downthe value of some of its European businesses, citing fiercecompetition and regulatory changes.
On Wall Street, shares extended declines in late trading.The Dow Jones industrial average fell 112.64 points or0.68 percent, to 16,399.22, the S&P 500 lost 9.51 pointsor 0.5 percent, to 1,875.57 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 22.52 points or 0.55 percent, to 4,103.29.
Shares of TJX tumbled 7.1 percent to $54.25 while the S&Pretail index lost 0.8 percent.
Investors will soon turn their focus to see whether minutesfrom the last Federal Reserve policy meeting, due on Wednesday,will shed light on the likelihood and timing of rate rises.
At the same time, markets are optimistic over support fromthe European Central Bank, one of the few central banks stillkeeping monetary policy loose.
The dollar was down 0.2 percent against the yen to 101.30yen. The pair traded below the 200-day moving average, akey technical gauge, for a second straight day.
The Australian dollar was the biggest mover of theday, falling to a two-week low against the greenback on a slidein prices for iron ore, the country's biggest export earner.
Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note prices wereup 6/32 to yield 2.512 percent, from 2.536 percent late Monday.
Brent crude rose 32 cents to settle at $109.69 abarrel, supported by instability in Libya, while U.S. crudefutures slipped 17 cents to settle at $102.44. Platinumedged higher as South Africa's longest and costliest miners'strike continued. Spot platinum was up 0.4 percent.
THAI UNREST
Nervousness also washed in from Asia, where Thailanddeclared martial law after months of unrest.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.4 percent. (Additional reporting by Marc Jones and John Geddie in Londonand Sam Forgione and Chuck Mikolajczak in New York; Editing byDan Grebler and James Dalgleish)