GLOBAL MARKETS-Global stock index dips with oil rallying on Iran worries as gold, silver rise

By Sinéad Carew and Amanda Cooper

NEW YORK/ LONDON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - MSCI's global equities gauge lost ground on Tuesday as technology stocks pushed Wall Street lower in contrast with an oil rally on fears of U.S.-Iran tensions while precious metal prices rose sharply, regaining some lost ground following a two-day rout.

Oil prices jumped after the U.S. military shot down an Iranian drone that approached the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, according to a Reuters report citing a U.S. official. Also, a group of Iranian gunboats approached a U.S.-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz north of Oman, maritime sources and a security consultancy said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar was slightly lower while the Australian dollar was the stand-out performer on Tuesday after the central bank joined Japan as the only developed world economy to raise interest rates.

Investor anxiety appeared to rise as the session wore on with the CBOE volatility index .VIX picking up steam near the end of the first half hour of the U.S. stock market session and continuing to gain ground.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq had opened higher but lost ground quickly with software stocks weighing due to concerns about AI competition. Nvidia NVDA.O shares were the biggest weight on Wall Street after Reuters reported that ChatGPT developer OpenAI has been seeking faster alternatives to Nvidia's artificial intelligence chips.

"Any AI related headlines right now are coming out as a negative and a headwind for the broader market. Under the surface there're areas of the market that are acting well but tech is getting hit pretty hard," said Sahak Manuelian, managing director for global equities trading at Wedbush Securities in Pasadena, California.

Earnings were also on investors' minds with chipmaker AMD AMD.O and server equipment company Super Micro Computer SMCI.O due to report after the market close.

At 1:30 p.m. ET (1830 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was down 434.86 points, or 0.88%, at 48,972.16, the S&P 500 .SPX fell 92.68 points, or 1.33%, to 6,883.94 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC shed 482.87 points, or 2.04%, to 23,109.64.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS fell 3.76 points, or 0.36%, to 1,040.01.

Earlier, the pan-European STOXX 600 index < .STOXX > finished up 0.1% for its second closing record in a row but trading was muted by a sharp selloff in software and advertising stocks.

While the heavyweight technology sector .SPLRCT was the weakest in the S&P 500, down 3%, energy .SPNY was the strongest group, up more than 2% helped by the rise in oil prices.

Oil prices rallied on concerns about Iran, after falling over 4% in the previous session. Traders also cited worries over supply as Russia continued attacks on Ukraine while they hoped an agreement between the U.S. and India to slash tariffs could boost global demand.

U.S. crude CLc1 rose 1.17% to $62.87 a barrel and Brent LCOc1 rose to $66.98 per barrel, up 1.03% on the day.

Commodities and the dollar have been whipsawed since U.S. President Trump's nomination of Kevin Warsh to lead the Federal Reserve last Friday. While he is expected to be under pressure from Trump to cut interest rates, Warsh is keen to shrink the Fed's balance sheet, which would push up bond yields, which is seen as a negative for precious metals.

But on Tuesday, spot gold XAU= rose 5.32% to $4,913.23 an ounce, after falling about 13% in the prior two sessions. Spot silver XAG= rose 5.05% to $83.43 an ounce after tumbling 6% in Monday's session and 27% on Friday.

"The market has been pretty worried, at least taking a hawkish bias to Kevin Warsh being nominated as the Fed Chair," said Jack Janasiewicz, lead portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers.

"We're seeing a little bit of calmness returning back to the markets on the commodity side looking at gold and silver."

In currencies, the dollar took a step back after last week's rally against a range of currencies.

The Australian dollar AUD= strengthened 0.86% versus the greenback to $0.7007 after the Reserve Bank of Australia raised rates by a quarter point to 3.85%, citing above-target inflation and a tight labour market.

The dollar index =USD, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.12% to 97.42, with the euro EUR= up 0.21% at $1.1814.

Against the Japanese yen JPY=, however, the dollar strengthened 0.1% to 155.76.

In U.S. Treasuries, yields rose slightly as traders evaluated possible shifts in Federal Reserve policy under Warsh as they faced U.S. economic data delays due to a partial government shutdown.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes US10YT=RR rose 0.7 basis points to 4.284%, from 4.277% late on Monday while the 30-year bond yield US30YT=RR rose 0.5 basis points to 4.9138%.

The 2-year note yield US2YT=RR, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations, rose 0.6 basis points to 3.576%, from 3.57% late on Monday.