* China's rate hike takes shine off global risk appetite * Dollar gains, commodities slip after China's rate move * Stocks slide, hurt by China, poor Apple and IBM results (Adds close of European markets)
By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, Oct 19 (Reuters) - World stocks and commodity prices fell on Tuesday after China, the engine of growth in an anemic global recovery, raised interest rates for the first time since 2007 to rein in its booming economy.
The dollar gained and Wall Street slumped on China's unexpected 25-basis-point rate increase a day after U.S Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner vowed Washington would not devalue the currency for its own advantage. For details see: [ID:nTOE69I048]
Oil prices fell, copper slid and gold was poised for its largest one-day drop since early July, while the dollar rose against the euro, the Japanese yen and a basket of major currencies following the rate hike by the People's Bank of China.
The central bank of China said it would raise its benchmark one-year lending and deposit rate, effective on Wednesday, in a tightening that analysts said may suggest Beijing and Washington are working together to ease rising currency tensions. The announcement from China's central bank was made on Oct. 19, which is remembered on Wall Street as the anniversary of the 1987 stock market crash.
Traders cut their exposure to risk by taking refuge in the dollar and selling the euro and commodity-sensitive Australian dollar. [ID:nN19134544]
The Australian dollar, which last week rose above parity with the U.S. currency for the first time since 1983, was hit hardest, slipping 1.5 percent. The euro and sterling also fell sharply.
Investors feared a quarter-percentage point rise in China's one-year lending rate could dampen Chinese and global growth while slowing China's voracious demand for commodities, many of which come from Australia. [ID:nBJI002412]
"China's rate increase instantaneously pushed people to take risk off the table," said Boris Schlossberg, director of research at GFT Forex.
China "is trying to clamp down on growth and that's going to reflect badly on Australia, on Germany, on much of the world economy as it readjusts to the idea that Chinese growth may not be as torrid as expected," Schlossberg said.
The dollar was up against a basket of major currencies, with the U.S. Dollar Index <.DXY> up 1.26 percent at 77.903.
LIQUIDITY 'TUG OF WAR'
European shares and Wall Street fell as disappointed investors worried about the strength of U.S. corporate earnings after results and outlooks from consumer and technology titans Apple and IBM failed to meet expectations.
The MSCI all-country world equity index <.MIWD00000PUS> fell 1.1 percent. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index of top shares slipped 0.5 percent to end at 1,082.96.
At 12:50 p.m., the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was down 107.40 points, or 0.96 percent, at 11,036.29. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was down 10.32 points, or 0.87 percent, at 1,174.39. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was down 24.39 points, or 0.98 percent, at 2,456.27.
China's interest-rate decision unsettled investors, said Philippe Gijsels, head of research at BNP Paribas Fortis Global Markets in Brussels. Investors had become accustomed to widespread expectations of further U.S. monetary expansions,
"It is now a tug of war between China taking liquidity out of the market and the Federal Reserve putting liquidity back in possibly through quantitative easing," he said. "It is difficult to predict whether this is the start of a market reversal."
Apple's
International Business Machines Corp
GOLD PLUMMETS, OIL DROPS
The basic materials sector <.GSPM>, closely linked to consumption in China, was the worst performer in the S&P 500 and helped push European shares edged lower. [ID:nLDE69I1CS]
Oil fell on the dollar's strength. U.S. light sweet crude
oil
Spot gold prices
U.S. government debt prices were little changed as several Federal Reserve officials expressed the need for more policy easing, which offset solid bank results and less grim housing data. [ID:nN19130537]
Traders interpreted remarks from several senior Fed officials as reassurance that the U.S. central bank will shortly engage in a second round of asset purchases known as quantitative easing, dubbed "QE2."
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note
Overnight in Asia, Japan's Nikkei share average closed 0.4 percent higher <.N225>, extending a gain since September to 6.9 percent, but MSCI's index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> slipped 0.3 percent.
The China rate hike move came after Asian markets had
closed. The dollar