GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks, oil prices edge up on trade talk optimism

(Adds oil, gold settlement prices)
* Wall Street indexes set record highs
* MSCI's all-country index edges closer to record peak
* U.S.-China trade talks continue to hog spotlight
* Dollar eases after earlier gains

By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Oil prices and a gauge of
global stock markets edged higher on Tuesday, lifted by fresh
record highs on Wall Street after U.S. President Donald Trump
said the United States and China were close to agreeing on the
first phase of a trade deal.
Investor sentiment took heart in a steady patter of
encouraging news about the prolonged trade talks, providing hope
the on-again, off-again talks after 16 months of negotiations
were finally drawing near to conclusion.
Trump said Washington was in the "final throes" of work on a
deal that would defuse the trade war with Beijing, but he also
underscored Washington's support for protesters in Hong Kong, a
potential sore point with China.
China's Commerce Ministry earlier said Chinese and U.S.
trade negotiators held a phone call to hammer out a "phase one"
deal, leading U.S. and euro zone bond yields to slide as
investors saw progress being made. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS
gained 0.09%, as the global benchmark traded within 1 percentage
point of an all-time high set in January 2018.
Equity markets have rallied on hopes of a deal but traders
are looking for what the reaction might be once a deal is
reached, said Dennis Dick, a proprietary trader at Bright
Trading LLC in Las Vegas.
"Traders are starting to book some profits and just get
cautious. Cautious optimism is driving us higher right now," he
said.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX closed up 0.1%
with the French CAC 40 .FCHI up 0.08% and Germany's DAX
.GDAXI closing down by 0.08%.
MSCI's emerging markets index .MSCIEF fell 0.52%.
All three major indexes on Wall Street set record highs, as
gains for Disney and Best Buy overshadowed some
softer-than-anticipated economic data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 20.84 points,
or 0.07%, to 28,087.31. The S&P 500 .SPX gained 1.52 points,
or 0.05%, to 3,135.16 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
8.53 points, or 0.1%, to 8,641.02.
Oil prices traded higher, helped by predictions for a draw
on U.S. crude stockpiles.
"The positive effect this is having on the oil price is more
psychological in nature," said Commerzbank analyst Carsten
Fritsch. He noted that he does not expect oil demand to pick up
noticeably even after any partial agreement is signed.
U.S. crude stockpiles were expected to have declined 300,000
barrels last week, according to a Reuters poll of analysts,
ahead of reports from the American Petroleum Institute on
Tuesday and the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 settled up 62 9 cents at $64.27
a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 rose 40
cents to settle at $58.41 a barrel.
The dollar traded little changed.
Data showed the U.S. goods trade deficit fell sharply in
October as both exports and imports declined, pointing to a
continued reduction in trade flows that has been blamed on the
Trump administration's "America First" policy. U.S. consumer confidence fell for a fourth straight month in
November while other data showed an unexpected drop in new
home sales last month.
The dollar index .DXY fell 0.08%, with the euro EUR= up
0.07% to $1.1021. The Japanese yen JPY= weakened 0.10% versus
the greenback at 109.04 per dollar.
Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes US10YT=RR last rose
7/32 in price to push their yield down to 1.7380%.
Gold edged higher, snapping a four-day losing streak, after
touching a two-week low earlier in the session at $1,450.30 an
ounce.
U.S. gold futures for December GCcv1 delivery settled up
0.2% at $1,460.30.
"The only story here is the China-U.S. (trade deal). Last
few sessions, gold has been selling off on hopes for a
U.S.-China deal. Right now, gold is paused here and is in kind
of a wait-and-see (mode)," said Bob Haberkorn, senior market
strategist at RJO Futures.

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