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China's yuan strengthens

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Dow, S&P 500 post record closing highs

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10-year Treasury yields dip

(Updates to 5 p.m. ET/2100 GMT)

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK, Sept 24 (Reuters) - A widely followed global

stock index rose to a record high and copper prices hit their

strongest level in 10 weeks on Tuesday after China unveiled

stimulus measures to support its economy.

The Dow and S&P 500 eked out record closing highs as mining

stocks surged. China's yuan hit a 16-month high against the U.S.

dollar, and oil prices climbed to a three-week high on the news

from China, the world's top crude importer.

People's Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng announced

plans to lower borrowing costs and inject more funds into the

economy, as well as to ease households' mortgage repayment

burden. The announcement included a planned 50 basis point cut

to banks' reserve requirement ratios.

On Wall Street, copper and lithium miners rose.

Freeport-McMoRan ( FCX ) rose 7.9%, Southern Copper ( SCCO )

added 7.2%, Albemarle advanced 1.97% and Arcadium

Lithium ( ARLTF ) climbed 3.2%.

U.S.-listed shares of Chinese firms such as Alibaba ( BABA )

rose 7.9%, PDD Holdings ( PDD ) added 11.8% and Li Auto ( LI )

advanced 11.4%.

The news from China is "feeding through into parts of the

U.S. market, where you see some more China-sensitive, more

cyclical industries like metals and mining materials...

outperforming," said Zachary Hill, head of portfolio management

at Horizon Investments in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 83.57 points,

or 0.20%, to 42,208.22, the S&P 500 rose 14.36 points, or

0.25%, to 5,732.93 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 100.25

points, or 0.56%, to 18,074.52.

The S&P 500 briefly moved lower in early trading after

data showed U.S. consumer confidence unexpectedly fell in

September amid mounting worries over the health of the labor

market.

Investors are looking for clues on the Federal Reserve's

next move after the U.S. central bank began its latest easing

cycle last week with a 50 basis point cut in interest rates.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose

4.51 points, or 0.54%, to 844.56, and hit a record high. The

STOXX 600 index rose 0.65%.

In commodities, U.S. crude rose $1.19 to settle at

$71.56 a barrel and Brent rose to $75.17 per barrel, up

$1.27 on the day.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange

climbed by 2.7% to $9,802 a metric ton by 1615 GMT after hitting

its highest since July 15 at $9,825. China is a top metals

consumer.

Spot gold rose 1.15% to $2,658.69 an ounce.

The Chinese yuan strengthened 0.65% against the

greenback to 7.017 per dollar after reaching 7.0156 on the

session.

The U.S. dollar index extended declines after the

consumer confidence data.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback

against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro,

fell 0.57% to 100.35, with the euro up 0.59% at $1.1178.

Against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 0.31% to

143.15.

U.S. Treasury yields slipped

in choppy trading as U.S. data including the weak

confidence numbers nudged up the possibility that the Fed could

do another outsized rate cut at the November policy meeting.

U.S. rate futures have priced in a 62% chance of

another rate cut of 50 bps at the November meeting, up from 54%

on Monday, LSEG data showed. The more standard 25-bp easing

showed a 38% probability on Tuesday.

In afternoon trading, the benchmark 10-year yield was

slightly down at 3.733% after earlier hitting a

three-week high of 3.81%.

(Additional reporting by Echo Wang in New York and Sruthi

Shankar; Editing by Marguerita Choy, Deepa Babington, Lisa

Shumaker and David Gregorio)