(ADVISORY-There will be no Global Markets report from New York on Friday, March 25 due to the Good Friday holida))
* Another Fed official joins chorus on tightening risk
* Dollar heads for 5th day of gains, best run since April
* Drop in oil and commodities hits risk sentiment, stocks (Adds close of European markets)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, March 24 (Reuters) - Global equity markets and oil prices declined on Thursday and the dollar built on a recent string of gains after another Federal Reserve official talked up the chance of more than one hike in U.S interest rates this year.
The dollar .DXY climbed for a fifth day, adding 0.12 percent to 96.161 against a basket of major currencies. The streak would be the longest for the dollar in nearly a year and would give the greenback its first weekly rise in a month. gains were further supported by remarks of St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, who joined a chorus of officials who have recently highlighted the chance of at least two rate rises this year, with the first perhaps as soon as April. dollar's strength and record crude stockpiles weighed on oil prices, as U.S. crude was back under $40 a barrel and Brent on track for its biggest weekly drop in two months. market is just backing and filling here after a pretty big move off the bottom after a rough start to the year," said Doug Foreman, chief investment officer at Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management in Los Angeles.
"It's a little tired short-term, you are going to get a little bit of a breather here and the Fed becomes a convenient excuse for that."
The rally in crude prices to above $40 a barrel had been a big factor in the equity market advance in recent weeks, helping the benchmark S&P 500 .SPX climb more than 12 percent off its Feb. 11 low.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 82.56 points, or 0.47 percent, to 17,420.03, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 9.96 points, or 0.49 percent, to 2,026.75 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 16.16 points, or 0.34 percent, to 4,752.70.
Volume across markets was light, with many closed on Friday ahead of the Easter holiday.
U.S. crude CLc1 slumped 1.6 percent to $39.16 a barrel, after sliding 4 percent on Wednesday. Brent LCOc1 was last down 1 percent at $40.08.
The oil pullback has pressured U.S. and European equities this week, with both the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 suffering its worst drop in six weeks and the S&P set for its worst weekly drop in seven.
MSCI's index of world shares .MIWD00000PUS , down 0.82 percent on the session, was off 1.7 percent for the week.
The stronger dollar and softer oil prices were reflected in data on U.S. durable goods orders, which showed a drop in February, while weekly jobless claims continued to point to a solid labor market. XAU= edged up 0.11 percent to $1,221.20 an ounce, after hitting its lowest since late February at $1,212.20 but remained on track for its biggest weekly drop since November. down about 2 percent for the week, was off 0.2 percent at $4,9312 a tonne.
Benchmark U.S. 10-year notes US10YT=RR were last down 6/32 in price to yield 1.8948 percent, up from 1.875 percent Wednesday.
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Global assets in 2015
http://link.reuters.com/dub25t Commodities performance
http://link.reuters.com/rac73w Currencies vs dollar
http://link.reuters.com/tak27s
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Editing by Nick Zieminski and Bernadette Baum)