By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Commodity-linked stocks and world currencies got a lift on Monday from a surge in crude oil prices after major producers Saudi Arabia and Russia said they would extend oil supply cuts into 2018.
Energy ministers from the world's top two oil producers said cuts, which were set to expire next month, should continue until March, longer than an optional six-month extension specified in the deal.
"When the two biggest oil producers of the world reach a consensus on the extension of a supply cut, the market will listen," Tamas Varga, analyst at oil broker PVM, said in a report.
"Rhetoric is doing its job but this must be backed by action in less than two weeks' time."
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meets in Vienna on May 25 to consider the extension.
U.S. crude rose 2.72 percent to $49.14 per barrel and Brent was last at $52.09, up 2.46 percent on the day.
The news from the energy sector more than offset concern over the weekend after a successful missile test by North Korea and a cyber attack that affected computers in more than 150 countries.
CYBER ATTACK
The global "ransomware" cyber attack disrupted factories, hospitals, shops and schools, but spurred investors on Monday to buy stocks set to benefit from higher cyber security spending by firms and government agencies.
An exchange-traded fund of cyber security shares across the globe hit a near two-year high and was last up 3.3 percent at $30.74.
U.S. cyber stocks jumped, but the largest advancing sector on Wall Street was energy as shares tracked oil prices higher. The benchmark S&P 500 index hit a record high.
"At this level, there isn't too big a correlation between oil and equities but since we've seen oil fall quite a bit in a month or so, today's rally in oil is helping the market grind higher," said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab (NYSE:SCHW) in Austin, Texas.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 72.73 points, or 0.35 percent, to 20,969.34, the S&P 500 gained 10.67 points, or 0.45 percent, to 2,401.57 and the Nasdaq Composite added 23.24 points, or 0.38 percent, to 6,144.47.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 0.01 percent and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.50 percent.
Emerging market stocks rose 0.90 percent. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed 0.7 percent higher, while Japan's Nikkei lost 0.07 percent.
CRUDE, DATA WEIGH GREENBACK
The currencies of resource-linked economies got a boost from the jump in oil prices. The Canadian dollar hit its highest level in over two weeks against the greenback.
The U.S. dollar was also hurt by weak data on New York State area manufacturing.
The dollar index, tracking the currency against a basket of other major units, fell 0.36 percent, with the euro up 0.45 percent to $1.0977.
The Japanese yen weakened 0.20 percent versus the greenback at 113.60 per dollar, while Sterling was last trading at $1.2915, up 0.19 percent on the day.
The Mexican peso strengthened 0.67 percent versus the U.S. dollar at 18.68.
The Canadian dollar strengthened 0.41 percent versus the greenback at 1.37 per dollar.
U.S. Treasury yields slipped after the weak U.S. data.
Benchmark 10-year notes last fell 2/32 in price to yield 2.3398 percent, from 2.333 percent late on Friday.
Spot gold added 0.4 percent to $1,233.79 an ounce. U.S. gold futures gained 0.48 percent to $1,233.60 an ounce.
Copper rose 0.94 percent to $5,611.50 a ton.