* Catalonia keeps Europe's stocks down, Spain drops 1 pct
* Wall Street rises to record highs, helped by Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT)
* Dollar falls for third day running, Mexico's peso falls
* Crude oil futures rise as Saudi trims exports (Updates with U.S. trading, adds commentary, changes byline, previous dateline LONDON)
By Sinead Carew
NEW YORK, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Stocks around the world rose on Tuesday, helped by record highs on Wall street although Europe traded cautiously and U.S. Treasury yields fell as investors braced for a possible move by Catalonia to unilaterally declare independence from Spain.
While oil futures traded higher the dollar lost ground as the euro climbed to its highest point in a week after Germany's trade data beat forecasts and on expectations the European Central Bank may consider scaling back asset purchases.
Madrid's IBEX stocks index .IBEX was 1 percent lower due to Spain's biggest political crisis since an attempted military coup in 1981. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of European stocks was down 0.2 percent.
Catalonia's secessionist leader Carles Puigdemont was due to address the region's parliament in Barcelona later on Tuesday and could ask the assembly to vote on a unilateral declaration of independence from Madrid. Catalonia splits from Spain "that is going to create economic disruption, and that's bad for the Spanish economy and the euro zone as a whole," said Mary Ann Hurley, vice president in fixed income trading at D.A. Davidson in Seattle. three major Wall Street indexes scaled new records, helped by gains in energy stocks and in Wal-Mart WMT.N on the back of the company's $20 billion share buyback plan. .N
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 31.44 points, or 0.14 percent, to 22,792.51, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 2.95 points, or 0.12 percent, to 2,547.69 and the Nasdaq added 1.20 points, or 0.02 percent, to 6,580.93
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS gained 0.41 percent, also hitting a record high.
The dollar index .DXY , which tracks the greenback against a basket of major currencies, fell for the third day in a row.
The dollar index .DXY fell 0.46 percent, with the euro EUR= up 0.55 percent to $1.1803.
On top of strong German export data, traders were also upbeat after one of the European Central Bank's German policymakers called for an end to its stimulus. 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 9 in price to yield 2.3356, from 2.368 percent late on Monday.
The 30-year bond US30YT=RR last rose 24 in price to yield 2.8673 percent, from 2.906 percent late on Monday.
In commodities, Brent oil prices pushed above $56 a barrel after top producer Saudi Arabia signalled it would trim its exports and as OPEC flagged ongoing efforts to try to restore the longer-term "balance" of the market. O/R
U.S. crude CLcv1 rose 2.46 percent to $50.80 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $56.69, up 1.61 percent on the day.
Gold prices also hit their highest in more than a week against the backdrop of a weaker dollar although expectations for another U.S. interest rate hike capped gains. Spot gold XAU= added 0.6 to $1,291.12 an ounce. GOL/
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http://reut.rs/2sSBRiD KOSPI/MSCI Asia ex-Japan
http://reut.rs/2zbTCwf Global assets in 2017
http://reut.rs/1WAiOSC World FX rates in 2017
http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh Catalonia secession
http://reut.rs/2yCeL67 Catalonia crisis impact on Spanish banks
http://reut.rs/2zbl6lH
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