GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks gain on U.S.-China trade hopes, dollar flat

* Wall Street edges higher as tech, financials rise
* Dollar trades flat; market awaits news from G20 summit
* Crude prices slip ahead of G20, OPEC meeting

By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, June 27 (Reuters) - Global equity markets gained
and the dollar held steady on Thursday ahead of the G20 summit
where a scheduled meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump and
Chinese President Xi Jinping has stirred hopes that trade
tensions could ease.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Fox News
there were no preconditions and nothing was agreed before the
Trump-Xi meeting on Saturday. Earlier, a Hong Kong
report indicated a truce had been reached, which eased worries
Trump would impose new tariffs on $300 billion in Chinese goods.
The trade war has crimped manufacturing and begun to slow
growth, so hopes for a truce rekindled investor interest in
riskier assets and weighed on safe havens.
Optimism was tempered by a Wall Street Journal report that
Xi planned to present Trump with a set of terms Washington
should meet before Beijing is ready to settle. "I continue to be very skeptical that the U.S., at least
this current administration, will reach a deal with China," said
Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco in
New York.
"I can't find any compelling reasons why China would make
real concessions to the U.S.," Hooper said.
The dollar index .DXY , which tracks the dollar against the
euro, Japanese yen, sterling and three other currencies, traded
slightly lower at 96.200. The dollar was little changed against
the euro EUR= and the yen JPY= .
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS
gained 0.42%, while both the pan-European STOXX 600 index
.STOXX and the FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 of leading
regional shares closed basically at break-even.
Stocks on Wall Street mostly gained, though the Dow
industrials closed slightly lower.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 10.24 points,
or 0.04%, to 26,526.58. The S&P 500 .SPX gained 11.14 points,
or 0.38%, to 2,924.92 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
57.79 points, or 0.73%, to 7,967.76.
Healthcare .SPXHC rose 0.62% and financials .SPSY gained
0.92%, with big lenders leading the charge ahead of results of
the second part of the Federal Reserve's annual stress test for
banks.
Semiconductor companies, which have a sizable revenue
exposure to China, traded higher, with the Philadelphia
Semiconductor index .SOX rising 1.47%.
U.S. Treasury debt yields fell on concerns that trade
discussions between the United States and China on Saturday may
be more complicated than previously expected.
News headlines suggest that "the meeting in Osaka is going
to be a lot more tense than some of the initial optimism
suggested," said Ian Lyngen, head of U.S. rates strategy at BMO
Capital Markets in New York.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note US10YT=RR rose
10/32 in price to push its yield lower to 2.0140%.
German government bond yields fell back toward record lows
after data showed annual inflation in the euro zone's biggest
economy remained well below the European Central Bank's target.
Germany's 10-year bond yield was down 1.2 basis points at
minus 0.32% DE10YT=RR , nearing Tuesday's record low of minus
0.336%.
Oil prices settled little changed, weighed by concerns over
whether the G20 summit will produce a breakthrough on trade and
perceptions that supply is ample despite prospects for continued
curbs by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Brent crude LCOc1 , the global benchmark, rose 6 cents to
settle at $66.55 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude
CLc1 settled up 5 cents to $59.43.
U.S. gold futures GCcv1 settled 0.2% lower at $1,412 an
ounce.

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