* China's producer prices beat expectations
* Oil jumps as fighting escalates in Kirkuk
* Japan's Nikkei tops two-decade record
* Euro falters; copper hits three-year high (Changes byline, adds dateline NEW YORK; adds Wall Street open; updates throughout)
By Hilary Russ
NEW YORK, Oct 16 (Reuters) - World stocks rose on Monday, boosted by upbeat Chinese data, while oil prices jumped as an escalation in fighting between the Iraqi government and Kurdish forces threatened supply.
Asian shares rallied to a decade high after figures showed China's producer prices beat market expectations to rise 6.9 percent in September from a year earlier. Wall Street indexes hit fresh records at the market open on gains in financial and technology stocks ahead of a barrage of earnings reports this week. market still wants to be optimistic, it wants to continue to move higher from here," said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Boston Private Wealth.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside at its highest level since late 2007. .N Japan's Nikkei .N225 rose 0.47 percent. Emerging market stocks rose 0.48 percent.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 climbed to a level not seen since November 1996. Australian shares .AXJO extended their winning streak to a fourth straight session to rise 0.6 percent, while South Korea's stock index .KS11 set a new record.
Upbeat data from China came before the Communist Party Congress on Wednesday and third-quarter economic data on Thursday. Figures showed China's producer prices beat market expectations to rise 6.9 percent in September from a year earlier.
"What has helped risk appetite this morning is that the Chinese inflation data suggests the world's second biggest economy is doing much better than people expected this time a year ago for 2017," said Michael Hewson, chief markets analyst at CMC Markets.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 34.9 points, or 0.15 percent, to 22,906.62, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 2 points, or 0.08 percent, to 2,555.17 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 13.27 points, or 0.2 percent, to 6,619.08.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 rose 0.09 percent and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS gained 0.11 percent.
Copper CMCU3 hit three-year highs, last up 3.67 percent to $7,134.50 a tonne. Prices of iron ore DCIOcv1 and coke DCJcv1 , key ingredients in steel-making, jumped with Dalian iron ore futures. MET/L
Oil prices were also driven higher as Iraqi forces entered the oil city of Kirkuk, taking territory from Kurdish fighters and briefly cutting some output from OPEC's second-biggest producer. escalation in Northern Iraq is the main driver," Commerzbank (DE:CBKG) analyst Carsten Fritsch told the Reuters Global Oil Forum. "Oil supply from this region is at risk."
U.S. crude CLcv1 rose 0.82 percent to $51.87 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $57.86, up 1.21 percent on the day.
The euro weakened after the Austrian election put conservative Sebastian Kurz on track to become the next leader. He is seen as likely to seek a coalition with the resurgent far right because his party is far short of a majority. euro EUR= down 0.16 percent to $1.1803, while the dollar index .DXY rose 0.09 percent naps investors repositioned following disappointing inflation data on Friday that had sent the greenback lower. Reuters Live Markets blog on European and UK stock markets see reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageId=livemarkets
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http://reut.rs/2kWi1mP GRAPHIC-World FX rates in 2017
http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh GRAPHIC-Global assets in 2017
http://tmsnrt.rs/2yaWht3 GRAPHIC-Global market cap
http://reut.rs/2mcp7T1 GRAPHIC-Emerging markets in 2017
http://tmsnrt.rs/2ihRugV GRAPHIC-MSCI Indexes Price Performance YTD
http://reut.rs/2jiGv8R
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