* S&P 500 index at five-month peak on good U.S. earnings
* Markets digest second day of testimony from Fed's Powell
* Gold falls to year-low on U.S. dollar strenth
* Oil up on bullish demand signals, even as US stockpiles grow (Updates with close of U.S. trading)
By Lewis Krauskopf
NEW YORK, July 18 (Reuters) - Stocks on major world markets climbed to a one-month high on Wednesday after a raft of strong corporate earnings, while the U.S. dollar hit a three-week high against major currencies.
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS gained 0.17 percent and touched its highest point in a month.
Stock markets were also supported by Federal Resrve chairman Jerome Powell reiterating that the U.S. economy was healthy, even though he warned that rising world protectionism would over time pose a risk to the global economic expansion. been constructive on the economy and downplayed the risk of a recession," said Jonathan Cohn, interest rate strategist with Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) in New York.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 79.4 points, or 0.32 percent, to 25,199.29, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 6.07 points, or 0.22 percent, to 2,815.62 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 0.67 points, or 0.01 percent, to 7,854.44.
The S&P 500 hit a more than five-month high.
Shares of Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) MS.N , airline United Continental UAL.N and railroad CSX CSX.O all jumped after the companies reported better-than-expected results. Inc's AMZN.O stock market value reached $900 billion for the first time, though the shares later reversed course to trade slightly lower. pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 rose 0.60 percent, hitting a one-month high. The region's shares were supported by currency weakness and a rally in technology stocks following well-received earnings updates, including from Sweden's Ericsson (BS:ERICAs) ERICb.ST . the foreign exchange market, the U.S. dollar index .DXY , which measures the greenback against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.17 percent, to 95.104 after rising as high 95.407. The euro EUR= was down 0.16 percent to $1.164.
Federal Reserve chairman Powell's comments to Congress about the health of the U.S. economy reinforced the view that interest rates would continue to rise supporting demand for the dollar.
Traders saw his comments as signifying that authorities were comfortable with the greenback's near 6 percent rise against its rivals in the last three months. U.S. 10-year notes US10YT=RR last fell 4/32 in price to yield 2.8766 percent, from 2.862 percent late on Tuesday. The U.S. yield curve US2US10=TWEB remained near its flattest in nearly 11 years. prices rose 1.0 percent after U.S. government data indicated bullish demand for gasoline and distillates, which overshadowed a surprise build in U.S. crude inventories and U.S. crude oil production's hitting 11 million barrels per day for the first time. crude CLcv1 settled up 1 percent at $68.76 per barrel, and Brent LCOcv1 settled at $72.90, up 1 percent.
Spot gold XAU= fell to a one-year low as the U.S. dollar rose XAU= before settling at $1,227.81 an ounce. Rise of the dollar in trade-weighted terms
https://reut.rs/2L8rLag World FX rates in 2018
http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
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