GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks climb, led by tech shares; dollar dips after recent gains

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK, April 24 (Reuters) - Major stock indexes rose on Thursday as investors weighed the latest comments on the U.S.-China trade conflict and data showing the U.S. labor market was holding up, while the dollar slipped after recent gains.

S&P 500 technology .SPLRCT was up more than 2% and led gains among S&P 500 sectors. Alphabet GOOGL.O, up 1.7%, was due to report quarterly results after the closing bell.

Beijing said the U.S. should remove all "unilateral tariff measures" against China "if it truly wanted" to solve the trade issue. The White House on Wednesday signaled it was open to reducing sweeping tariffs on China.

Investors also weighed the possibility of a first interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve in June.

Fed Bank of Cleveland President Beth Hammack on Thursday called for patience on monetary policy given high levels of uncertainty, but did not rule out an interest rate cut in June, depending on economic data.

Benchmark 10-year yields US10YT=RR were last at 4.33%, about five basis points lower than Wednesday. Two-year yields US2YT=RR were about six bps lower at 3.807%.

Over the last week, U.S. President Donald Trump has given verbal attacks on Fed Chair Jerome Powell then retracted calls for his resignation.

First-quarter earnings reports have been mixed, with businesses across multiple industries saying they're increasing prices and uncertain about the outlook because of Trump's trade war and policies.

Dove soap maker Unilever ULVR.L flagged weakening U.S. consumer confidence, while shares of International Business Machines IBM.N slumped after the company said 15 of its government contracts were shelved under a cost-cutting drive by the Trump administration.

Economic data on Thursday showed, among other things, the number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits rose marginally last week, suggesting the labor market remained resilient.

U.S. data also showed a much larger-than-expected jump in March orders for durable goods.

"Companies are front-running the tariffs, so these durable goods data aren’t something to get excited about," said Jamie Cox, managing partner for Harris Financial Group, in a note. "The good news is that companies are protecting their earnings and margins, and investors will be happy about that," he added.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 250.81 points, or 0.63%, to 39,857.38, the S&P 500 .SPX rose 69.93 points, or 1.29%, to 5,445.79 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC rose 304.24 points, or 1.82%, to 17,012.29.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS rose 7.48 points, or 0.93%, to 815.69. The pan-European STOXX 600 .STOXX index rose 0.38%.

Japan's Nikkei .N225 rose 0.5%. Reuters reported that Japanese tariff negotiator Ryosei Akazawa was making final arrangements to visit the United States from April 30 to hold a second round of talks with his counterpart.

The dollar index =USD, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, including the yen and the euro, fell 0.24% to 99.55, with the euro EUR= up 0.37% at $1.1355. Against the Japanese yen JPY=, the dollar weakened 0.52% to 142.7.

Spot gold XAU= rose 1.05% to $3,321.99 an ounce, while oil prices also rose. U.S. crude CLc1 gained 0.32% to $62.47 a barrel and Brent LCOc1 rose to $66.26 per barrel, up 0.21% on the day.