(Add U.S. markets open, byline, dateline; previous LONDON)
* Oil surges on U.S. plans to end Iran export sanctionwaivers
* European oil companies lift regional equity indexes
* Wall Street gains on strong corporate results
* Dollar strong as traders await U.S. GDP data on Friday
By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, April 23 (Reuters) - European energy shares hadtheir best day since January on the back of higher oil prices onTuesday while Wall Street rose on upbeat results that easedfears of slowing profits.
News that the United States told buyers of Iranian oil tostop purchases by May 1 or face sanctions lifted Brent, theglobal benchmark, and made for a lively return from afour-day Easter break for European markets.
European oil and gas shares jumped more than 2%,with BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc liftingthe FTSE 100 index to six-month highs, while theFTSEurofirst 300 Index <.FTEU3) of leading regional shares hiteight-month highs.
The main U.S. indexes hovered below record highs as strongresults from Coca-Cola Co, Twitter Inc and ahost of industrial companies allayed concerns about the earningsoutlook.
The government shutdown earlier this year weakened theeconomy and corporate growth but since March companies have doneextraordinarily well and growth continues strong, said GeorgeBoyan, president of Leumi Investment Services in New York.
"We remain overweight (in equities) and any type of pullbackwe would view as an opportunity to add equity exposure," Boyansaid. "We've enjoyed quite a run but there's nothing to causesme to want to take off exposure at this point."
Twitter surged 16.5%, its biggest single-day jump sinceOctober 2017, after posting better-than-expected quarterlyrevenue and a surprising rise in monthly active users.
Coca-Cola rose 2.6% after its quarterly sales beatestimates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 70.32 points,or 0.27%, to 26,581.37. The S&P 500 gained 13.96 points,or 0.48%, to 2,921.93 and the Nasdaq Composite added55.96 points, or 0.7%, to 8,071.23.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globegained 0.28%.
The dollar climbed across the board as traders favored thegreenback ahead of Friday's release of U.S. gross domesticproduct for the first three months of 2019.
The dollar was supported by data that showed sales of newU.S. single-family homes jumped to a near 1-1/2-year high inMarch.
The data followed recent upbeat news on retail sales andexports, which have eased concerns of a sharply slowing U.S.economy, analysts said.
The dollar index, which measures the greenbackagainst six currencies, rose 0.41% after hitting its highestsince June 2017. The euro fell 0.46% against the dollar,slipping below $1.12 for the first time in nearly three weeks.
The Japanese yen strengthened 0.02% versus thegreenback at 111.92 per dollar.
Oil prices hit their highest since November.
Brent crude futures rose as high as $74.70, a levelnot seen since Nov. 1, before paring gains. Brent futures rose58 cents to $74.62 a barrel.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose $1.03to $66.58 a barrel.
Treasury yields fell, a counter-trend in the broader rise inyields over the past month. As the economic outlook hasimproved, yields have risen back from late-March lows.
Benchmark 10-year notes rose 4/32 in price topush its yield down to 2.5758%.
The Swiss franc burrowed to a new 16-month low on talk ofeven more negative rates. Two usual beneficiaries of higher oilprices, the Canadian dollar and Norwegian crown,both struggled despite the crude rally.
In China, major benchmarks had dipped in and out ofnegative territory on concern that Beijing will slow the pace ofpolicy easing after unexpectedly strong first-quarter economicdata last week.
China's blue-chip stocks have surged over 30percent so far this year on expectations of more stimulus andhopes Beijing and Washington will reach an agreement to endtheir nine-month trade dispute.
(Reporting by Herbert Lash; Editing by Richard Chang)
BP (BP.)
