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China trade data boosts dollar, banks lead stocks up

By Rodrigo Campos

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar rallied and major stock markets rose on Wednesday after JPMorgan's results beat lowered expectations and upbeat Chinese trade data offered hope Asia's biggest economy is finally stabilising.

The euro fell nearly 1 percent versus the greenback as stronger Chinese economic growth boosted recently batted-down expectations that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates again in the not-too-distant future.

China reported exports jumped 11.5 percent year on year in March, the first increase since June, well above market forecasts.

On Wall Street, stocks rallied after JPMorgan Chase's first quarter earnings fell nearly 7 percent but beat lowered expectations. The S&P 500 financial sector gained more than 2 percent.

"It's a positive that (JPMorgan) earnings were well received," said Michael O'Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich, Connecticut. "It's just a quiet tape and there's not much going on, so it doesn't take much to create the move."

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 169.02 points, or 0.95 percent, to 17,890.27, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 16.58 points, or 0.8 percent, to 2,078.3 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 60.19 points, or 1.24 percent, to 4,932.28.

Europe's FTSEuroFirst index of leading 300 shares posted its biggest gain in a month, rising 2.6 percent to end at a three-week high near 1,350 points. Gains in equities in Europe were led by banks <.SX7P>, which rose 6.3 percent, as investors welcomed assurances from Italy's economy minister that European authorities will not block the country's bank fund.

MSCI's gauge of equities across the globe <.MIWD00000PUS> rose 1.3 percent and was on track to close in positive territory for the year for the first time in 2016.

Chinese stocks <.SSEC> added 1.4 percent, while Japan's Nikkei <.N225> rose 2.8 percent for its biggest daily gain in six weeks.

OIL HOLDS KEY LEVEL

Oil prices fell from a four-month high in choppy trading as comments from Russia's energy minister added to doubts that a producer meeting set for Sunday in Doha could yield a freeze in output.

Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi ruled out an output cut, in comments to Saudi-owned al-Hayat newspaper published on Wednesday.

Brent fell 1.3 percent to $44.13 a barrel in a choppy session, while U.S. crude lost 1 percent to $41.76. Easing back from four-month highs, both held above their 200-day moving average.

The euro fell 0.9 percent against the dollar to $1.1277 , helping the dollar index <.DXY> to climb 0.9 percent to 94.768 and further away from its near eight-month low of 93.627 struck recently.

Further supporting the U.S. currency, the Federal Reserve said the U.S. economy continued to expand from late February to early April and low unemployment appears to be spurring an uptick in wage growth.

The U.S. Treasury 10-yer note rose 7/32 in price to yield 1.7586 percent from 1.781 percent late on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos and David Gaffen, additional reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; Editing by Nick Zieminski)