Equities gain, gold drops as fears of wider Middle East conflict ease

Corporate results and US PCE inflation the week's focus

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Brent, gold prices fall

NEW YORK/LONDON, April 22 (Reuters) - Investors scaled back safe-haven bets on Monday as worries over a wider Middle East conflict eased, boosting world equities and pressuring gold, oil and bond prices.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose 1.13%, to 751.68 by 1:33 p.m. EST (1733 GMT).

In a reversal of Friday's "risk off" mood, spot gold lost 2.65% to $2,327.24 an ounce, poised for its biggest one-day drop since June 2022.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 424.55 points, or 1.12%, to 38,410.93, the S&P 500 gained 65.62 points, or 1.32%, to 5,032.85 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 229.77 points, or 1.50%, to 15,511.44.

Investors have taken cautious positions on Fridays in recent weeks, fearing an escalation in the conflict in the Middle East over the weekend when markets are closed and they are unable to trade.

"It seems neither Israel nor Iran want an escalation in the crisis in the Middle East," said Kazuo Kamitani, a strategist at Nomura Securities. "With a subsequent strike from either side not looking like it's coming, investor concerns have eased somewhat."

But expectations of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts and concerns about chip sector earnings will continue to keep investors on their toes, he said.

More than 150 companies in the S&P 500 and 173 companies in the STOXX 600 are slated to report first-quarter results this week, according to data from LSEG Workspace.

These include several big European banks, as well as U.S. tech giants Microsoft and Alphabet, with the latter in particular focus after chip maker Nvidia's 10% drop on Friday, its biggest percentage fall in four years.

The STOXX 600 index rose 0.6%. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose 1.08%.

Traders were expecting the first Fed rate cut as most likely coming in September following Consumer Price Index data earlier this month, though July was also seen as possible.

"The big picture in equities is that they have been able to digest this push back in rate expectations," said Karim Chedid, Blackrock's chief investment strategist for iShares EMEA.

"Now earnings have to deliver for them to continue to do well."

London's commodities-heavy FTSE-100 rose 1.62%, nearing an all-time high as tin and nickel rose to multi-month peaks.

It was outpaced by a 3.11% gain for the Portuguese index as oil company Galp Energia rose nearly 20% after saying a field off Namibia could contain 10 bln barrels of oil.

Iran said on Friday that it had no plan to retaliate following an apparent Israeli drone attack within its borders, which in turn followed an Iranian missile and drone attack on Israel days before.

HAVEN OUTFLOWS

Bond yields - which climb when prices fall - were generally heading back toward multi-month highs.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 1.4 basis points to 4.629%, from 4.615% late on Friday, as the 30-year bond yield rose 1.7 basis points to 4.7283% from 4.711%.

The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations, rose 0.7 basis point to 4.9756%.

In Europe, the benchmark Bund yield retreated from a five-month high as investors shifted their focus to European Central Bank policy.

The dollar index, which measures the currency against six major peers, fell 0.02% to 106.08. The euro climbed 0.04% to $1.0658.

"As long as there is this uncertainty about the cutting cycle particularly in the U.S, it's interesting for investors to be in dollar longs because of its dual status as a high-yielding currency and also a defensive currency," said Yvan Berthoux, FX strategist at UBS.

Crude oil fell as traders put the focus back on fundamentals with a rise in U.S. stockpiles as the backdrop. U.S. crude lost 0.32% to $82.86 a barrel and Brent fell to $86.86 per barrel, down 0.49% on the day. O/R]

U.S. gold futures settled 2.8% lower at $2,346.4.