* U.S. earnings season heats up with major tech names due
* Treasury yields near 3 pct rattle stocks, underpin dollar
* Aluminium tumbles as U.S. mulls Rusal sanctions reprieve (Updates with U.S. market open, changes byline, dateline; previous LONDON)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, April 23 (Reuters) - A gauge of global equity markets was little changed on Monday as U.S. bond yields moved closer to the 3 percent level that has unnerved investors in recent months and a fall in commodity prices pressured energy and materials stocks.
U.S. bond prices fell, with the 10-year yield hitting its highest in over four years amid worries about the growing supply of government debt and accelerating inflation as oil and commodity prices have been rising in recent weeks. 10-year notes US10YT=RR last fell 9/32 in price to yield 2.9826 percent, from 2.951 percent late on Friday.
Commodities came under pressure after the U.S. mulled sanctions relief for United Company Rusal Plc OKSAI.MM as it weighed the potential impact of such measures on American allies and partners. space has been on fire - energy, metals, the commodities vertical has just been absolutely on fire," said Peter Kenny, senior market strategist at Global Markets Advisory Group, in New York.
"A lot of the air has been taken out of that space because of the U.S. kind of stepping back on what appeared to be a rather dramatic stance."
Three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange CMAL3 , which hit a seven-year high on Thursday, were last down 7.1 percent at $2,294.00 a tonne. gold XAU= dropped 0.9 percent to $1,323.08 an ounce. equity markets, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 rose 0.32 percent and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS shed 0.03 percent.
The climb in debt yields helped push the U.S. dollar to a seven-week high to put additional pressure on commodities and sent the euro and yen lower. dollar index .DXY rose 0.62 percent, with the euro EUR= down 0.6 percent to $1.2212. The Japanese yen weakened 0.85 percent versus the greenback at 108.59 per dollar.
Oil prices were also hampered by comments from Iran's oil minister, who said there would be no need to extend a deal on supply restraint if crude prices rose further. crude CLcv1 fell 0.72 percent to $67.91 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $73.97, down 0.12 percent on the day.
U.S. stocks were higher, however, boosted by gains in the technology and consumer discretionary sectors ahead of earnings from some big names in the sectors this week, including Amazon.com AMZN.O , up 0.7 percent and Microsoft MSFT.O , up 1.0 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 37.32 points, or 0.15 percent, to 24,500.26, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 9.94 points, or 0.37 percent, to 2,680.08 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 39.28 points, or 0.55 percent, to 7,185.40.
All eyes are on U.S. earnings, with more than 180 companies in the S&P 500 reporting results this week. Names expected to report include Alphabet GOOGL.O and Facebook FB.O as well as Boeing (NYSE:BA) BA.N and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) CVX.N . 500 companies are expected to report their strongest first-quarter profit gains in seven years. Of the 87 companies that have reported so far, 79.3 percent have topped profit expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data.
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