Global shares rise on Europe relief, optimism on Apple

By Sam Forgione

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A measure of equity markets worldwide hit record highs on Monday as optimism over Greece supported European stocks while U.S. shares added to last week's gains ahead of Apple results and a Federal Reserve policy meeting.

The Nasdaq inched closer to its record intraday high after the index, as well as the S&P 500, notched record closes on Friday. Apple shares were last up 1.8 percent to $132.66. The most valuable publicly-traded U.S. company will release quarterly results after the close of U.S. trading.

MSCI's all-country world stock index, which tracks shares in 45 countries, extended a multi-year rally to a fresh record high of 443.98. The index was helped by Chinese shares reaching seven-year highs.

News on Monday that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had reshuffled his team handling the talks with European and IMF lenders, helped stem early selling in European shares. Concerns over Greece have renewed since the country looks set to run out of cash in coming weeks.

"The well was so poisoned there that getting someone fresh in there from a negotiation perspective might lead to more breakthroughs, I think, is what the market's hoping for," said Chris Konstantinos, head of international portfolio management at RiverFront Investment Group in Richmond, Virginia.

The Dow Jones industrial average was last up 27.83 points, or 0.15 percent, to 18,107.97. The S&P 500 was up 1.22 points, or 0.06 percent, to 2,118.91. The Nasdaq Composite was up 3.24 points, or 0.06 percent, to 5,095.33.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was last up 0.85 percent, at 1,640.68.

U.S. Treasuries prices slipped ahead of an auction of $26 billion of two-year notes. Traders were reluctant to make big bets ahead of the two-day Fed meeting that begins Tuesday.

The meeting will be closely watched for signs of when the central bank will hike rates from rock-bottom levels, though the expectation is for little news out of this Fed gathering.

"I expect the Fed to do nothing. I don't think the data are there for them to be tweaking things," said Brian Rehling, chief fixed-income strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes were last down 5/32 in price to yield 1.93 percent, from a yield of 1.92 percent late Friday.

The dollar pulled back. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of six currencies, fell 0.22 percent, to 96.704.

Another decline in rig counts helped U.S. oil prices rise modestly. U.S. crude was up 6 cents to $57.21 a barrel; Brent crude had pared losses, and was down 27 cents to $65.02 a barrel.

Spot gold prices rose $22.68 to $1,201.55 an ounce.

(Reporting by Sam Forgione; Additional reporting by Nigel Stephenson in London and Robert Gibbons, Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Richard Leong in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski)