* Brent tumbles after reaching a four-year high

* ECB and BoE both hold rates in Europe

* Global bond yields drop

* Apple ( AAPL ) results due later on Thursday on Wall Street

(Updates to midday)

By Caroline Valetkevitch and Marc Jones

NEW YORK/LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) - Global bond yields

fell and major stock indexes gained on Thursday as oil prices

retreated from four-year highs, while the yen jumped after

Japanese authorities were reported to have intervened in foreign

exchange markets to support their currency.

U.S. crude fell 2.02% to $104.72 a barrel and Brent

fell to $114.03 per barrel, down 3.39% on the day.

Iran said it would respond with "long and painful strikes"

on U.S. positions if Washington renewed attacks, and also

reasserted its control over the Strait of Hormuz, complicating

U.S. plans for a coalition to reopen the waterway.

ECB and Bank of England kept rates steady. On Wednesday, there

was a hawkish shift in tone from the Federal Reserve as it left

rates on hold. Three of the U.S. central bank's board members

voted to drop the easing bias in its policy statement in the

most divided decision since 1992.

"Yields are moving lower because the price of oil is coming

down. That's helping stocks, as well as some of the earnings

reports that were good," said Peter Cardillo, chief market

economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.

Tech-related earnings were mostly strong, with shares of

Alphabet up sharply following a record quarter for its

cloud unit.

Earnings from iPhone maker Apple ( AAPL ) are due after the

closing bell.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were on course to end April with

their biggest gains since 2020.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 669.39 points,

or 1.37%, to 49,530.40, the S&P 500 rose 30.40 points, or

0.43%, to 7,166.35 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 12.65

points, or 0.05%, to 24,685.40.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose

5.36 points, or 0.50%, to 1,072.92.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 1.38%.

The U.S. dollar fell sharply against the yen after Japanese

authorities were reported to have intervened in foreign exchange

markets to support their currency.

Officials had intervened to buy the yen, two sources

familiar with the matter told Reuters, after it hit its weakest

against the dollar since July 2024.

The dollar fell by as much as 3% against the yen to 155.5

yen, making for the largest single-day drop since late December

2024. It was last down 2.36% at 156.51 yen. Against the Japanese

yen, the dollar was last down 2.38% at 156.57.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell

1.8 basis points to 4.398%, from 4.416% late on Wednesday.

The 2-year UK gilt yields were back below 4.5%,

while 2-year German yields - which are sensitive to

near-term ECB rate changes - looked set to snap an eight-day run

on gains.

The day's earlier swing in oil prices was over 10 percentage

points. Brent was last at $113.5 a barrel and down almost 4%

having been as high as $126.41 overnight. It is still nearly

double the price it started the year at.

On Wednesday, outgoing Chair Jerome Powell confirmed he would

stay on as a governor for now to defend the institution's

independence as his successor Kevin Warsh, picked by low-rate

advocate U.S. President Donald Trump, moves toward confirmation.