GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks rise despite lackluster results; sterling creeps up as EU delays Brexit decision

* Brexit developments still in focus
* Sterling recovers
* Texas Instruments revenue forecast hits chipmakers

(Updates with closing U.S. markets levels)
By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK, Oct 23 (Reuters) - World stock indexes climbed on
Wednesday as investors brushed aside some earnings
disappointments, while the British pound inched up as European
Union leaders delayed a decision on whether to grant Britain a
three-month Brexit extension.
Shares of U.S. industrial bellwethers Boeing Co BA.N and
Caterpillar Inc CAT.N ended the day up about 1% each despite
big earnings misses.
Results have helped to shift investor focus toward earnings
in recent sessions.
"It's all about earnings at this time, and today we had
mixed earnings reports," said Peter Cardillo, chief market
economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.
But the market still ended higher because, for the most
part, "investors were already braced for that," he said.
With results now in from about 125 of the S&P 500 companies,
analysts still expect earnings to have declined 2.9%
year-over-year, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Some areas of equities stayed weak, including an index of
semiconductor shares .SOX . It fell 1.9% following a
weak-than-expected revenue forecast from Texas Instruments
TXN.O .
Sterling stabilized from Tuesday, when it dropped after
British lawmakers again put the brakes on the government's plans
to exit the European Union. EU member states on Wednesday delayed a decision on whether
to grant Britain a three-month Brexit extension. Prime Minister
Boris Johnson said if the deadline is deferred to the end of
January, he would call an election.
"After the slide in sterling we saw yesterday, we are
actually seeing a bit of a stabilization this afternoon," said
Shaun Osborne, chief foreign exchange strategist at Scotia
Capital.
Sterling GBP= was last trading at $1.2915, up 0.33% on the
day.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 45.85 points,
or 0.17%, to 26,833.95, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 8.53 points,
or 0.28%, to 3,004.52 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
15.50 points, or 0.19%, to 8,119.79. The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX rose 0.11% and
MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS gained
0.13%. In commodity markets, oil jumped after government data
showed a surprise draw in U.S. crude stocks.
U.S. crude CLcv1 climbed 2.7% to settle at $55.97, while
Brent LCOcv1 rose 2.5% to $61.17.
In the U.S. bond market, benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR
last fell 1/32 in price to yield 1.7695%, from 1.766% late on
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