NEW YORK, July 1 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks advanced on Wednesday as a weaker U.S. dollar lifted commodity prices, boosting shares of natural resource companies, including oil and mining stocks.
* The boost from the dollar also helped multinational companies, whose profits tend to benefit when they translate overseas earnings back into the U.S. currency.
* Coca-Cola Co jumped 2.3 percent, while IBM Corp shot up 1.2 percent.
* U.S. front-month crude was up $1.39, or 1.8 percent, at $71.30, while the U.S. dollar index shed 0.7 percent.
* The Dow Jones industrial average gained 98.63 points, or 1.17 percent, to 8,545.63. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 9.88 points, or 1.07 percent, to 929.20. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 21.13 points, or 1.15 percent, to 1,856.17.