* Wall St indexes barely up along with European stocks
* Yen falls vs dollar, supporting Japanese equities
* Low-risk bond yields rise as investors favor riskier assets
* Gold down; oil drops after Monday's 2.5 pct fall (Updates with U.S. prices, adds commentary, changes byline, previous dateline London)
By Sinead Carew
NEW YORK, Aug 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar and U.S. Treasury yields rose on Tuesday while Wall Street indexes were flat after solid retail data and North Korea's leader delayed a decision on firing missiles.
U.S. data showed the biggest increase in retail sales in seven months in July as consumers boosted purchases of motor vehicles and lifted discretionary spending, suggesting the economy continued to gain momentum. Korea's leader Kim Jong Un said he would watch the actions of the United States for a while longer before making a decision on whether to fire missiles towards the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, the country's official news agency said on Tuesday. stocks did not appear to get a lift from the data and the lull in rhetoric between the United States and Korea a day after the S&P 500 achieved its third 1-percent gain so far this year.
"Once you have a good lift in the market like yesterday, it's going to take a little more confidence that it can be sustained, especially at the valuations we're at. We need to have a little more calm down on the political front and geopolitical side," said Omar Aguilar, chief investment officer for equities at Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) Investment Management in San Francisco.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 10.03 points, or 0.05 percent, to 22,003.74, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.19 points, or 0.01 percent, to 2,466.03 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 0.93 points, or 0.01 percent, to 6,341.16. pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 rose 0.09 percent and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS shed 0.09 percent. U.S. Treasury yields hit one-week highs as investors pared low-risk bond holdings on signs of easing U.S.-North Korean tensions and strong domestic retail sales and regional factory activity data. 10-year notes US10YT=RR last fell 10/32 in price to yield 2.2535 percent, from 2.218 percent late on Monday.
The dollar rose to its highest level in nearly three weeks against a basket of major currencies after the data. dollar index .DXY rose 0.47 percent, with the euro EUR= down 0.42 percent to $1.1729.
The Japanese yen weakened 0.76 percent versus the greenback at 110.48 per dollar, while Sterling GBP= was last trading at $1.2861, down 0.79 percent on the day.
Spot gold XAU= dropped 0.7 percent to $1,272.83 an ounce.
Oil prices extended Monday's heavy sell-off, weighed down by a surge in the U.S. dollar and signs of weaker demand in China, the world's second-largest consumer. crude CLcv1 fell 0.59 percent to $47.31 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $50.41, down 0.63 percent on the day.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS ended the day unchanged. But Japan's Nikkei stock index .N225 ended 1.1 percent higher, boosted by the weaker yen, more than erasing the previous days losses. Back from the brink? Gold, yen and German debt in past month
http://reut.rs/2i0B9yn Global currencies vs. dollar
http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh Global assets in 2017
http://reut.rs/1WAiOSC Global bonds dashboard
http://tmsnrt.rs/2fPTds0 Global market cap
http://reut.rs/2mcp7T1 Emerging markets in 2017
http://tmsnrt.rs/2ihRugV
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