* Brent tumbles after reaching a four-year high

* ECB and BOE hold rates steady in Europe

* Japan intervenes to counter currency weakness, sources

say

* Apple ( AAPL ) shares up after the closing bell

(Updates with US closing levels)

By Caroline Valetkevitch and Marc Jones

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

and stocks rose on Thursday as oil prices retreated from

four-year highs, while the yen jumped after sources said Japan

intervened to prop up the currency.

Global benchmark Brent crude futures rose as high as

$126.41 a barrel but did not hold those gains, settling down

$4.02, or 3.4%, at $114.01. U.S. crude fell $1.81 to

settle at $105.07.

The oil markets have been in a period of heightened volatility

since joint U.S.-Israeli strikes against Iran kicked off a

conflict in the Middle East in late February. The war has

severely limited transit through the Strait of Hormuz, used for

shipping one-fifth of the world's oil and gas. Oil prices have

been on a steady upward climb over the last several days as an

agreement to reopen the waterway has not materialized.

The Middle East conflict showed no sign of abating on

Thursday, with Iran warning of retribution if the United States

abandons its ceasefire and renews its attacks, suggesting that

efforts to negotiate a peace deal have hit an impasse. Top U.S.

military leaders were expected to brief U.S. President Donald

Trump on potential military action in Iran, a U.S. official told

Reuters.

The day's oil declines buoyed some risk assets, however, and

stocks were stronger on the back of earnings from AI-focused

tech giants like Alphabet, which rose 10% following a

record quarter for its cloud unit. After the closing bell,

shares of Apple ( AAPL ) were up more than 3% after the company

forecast sales that beat expectations, even as it said it

expected to continue to face chip supply constraints.

With earnings, "occasionally, you know, they get a bit of a

hiccup, and but I'd say, overall, they they are delivering,"

said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls &

Snyder in New York.

After a poor March following the outbreak of war, April has

been a strong month for equities. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq

logged their biggest monthly gains in years as investors look

past the steady rundown of oil inventories that has raised

prices.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 790.33 points,

or 1.62%, to 49,652.14, the S&P 500 rose 73.06 points, or

1.02%, to 7,209.01 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 219.07

points, or 0.89%, to 24,892.31.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose

9.54 points, or 0.89%, to 1,077.10, and had its biggest monthly

percentage gain since 2020. The pan-European STOXX 600

index rose 1.38%.

"We're in an extremely resilient market," said Adam Sarhan,

chief executive of 50 Park Investments in New York. Equities

could go even higher, unless there is another big spike in oil

prices or a supply shock, he said.

ECB, BOE KEEP RATES STEADY

The ECB and the 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.

Japan intervened to prop up the yen, its first official

intervention in nearly two years, two sources familiar with the

matter told Reuters, sending the currency up sharply against the

dollar.

The sources, one government and another a market source,

spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to

speak to the media.

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

the largest single-day drop since late December 2024. It was

last down 2.4% at 156.51 yen. Against the Japanese yen,

the dollar was down 2.5% in late afternoon to 156.33.

In Treasuries, the 2-year note yield, which

typically moves in step with Fed interest rate expectations, was

last down 4.9 basis points at 3.883%. The yield on benchmark

U.S. 10-year notes fell 2.8 basis points to 4.388%.

Prices move in the opposite direction of yields.

Earlier, 2-year UK gilt yields dipped below 4.5%,

while 2-year German yields - which are sensitive to

near-term ECB rate changes - snapped an eight-day rise.

On Wednesday, outgoing Fed 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 Trump, moves toward confirmation.

In other commodities, spot gold was up 1.7% at

$4,618.67 per ounce.