U.S. shares end at record highs for second day, oil steadies

By Sam Forgione NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street's three main stock indexes ended at record highs for a second straight day on Tuesday, while European shares also rose on expectations that markets would benefit from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's policies. Moderate gains led the Dow to close above the 19,000 mark and the S&P 500 to end above 2,200 for the first time ever, while the Nasdaq and small-cap Russell 2000 <.RUT> also hit record closing highs for the second day. In Europe, the pan-European STOXX 600 index <.STOXX> and the FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> of top regional shares climbed to their highest levels since Nov. 10. Declines in U.S. healthcare stocks restrained U.S. indexes' gains, however. U.S. shares have rallied since the Nov. 8 U.S. election as Trump has promised tax cuts, higher spending on infrastructure and simpler regulations in the banking and healthcare industries. A sharp rally in metals prices and mining stocks boosted European shares, with the European Basic Resources index <.SXPP> closing up more than 3.4 percent. "Strength begets strength. The more we can continue to rally, the more people who are on the sidelines want to jump in, especially because there's so much cash on the sidelines," said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of 50 Park Investments. MSCI's all-country world equity index <.MIWD00000PUS> was last up 1.07 points, or 0.26 percent, at 413.37. The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> closed up 67.18 points, or 0.35 percent, at 19,023.87. The S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 4.76 points, or 0.22 percent, at 2,202.94. The Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 17.49 points, or 0.33 percent, at 5,386.35. Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index closed up 0.13 percent at 1,344.15. Oil prices ended little changed in volatile trade in which prices rose and fell by $1 a barrel depending on the latest comment from OPEC officials at a technical conference in Vienna on whether cartel members would agree to an output cut. Brent crude settled up 22 cents, or 0.45 percent, at $49.12 a barrel. U.S. crude settled down 21 cents, or 0.44 percent, at $48.03 a barrel. U.S. crude rose as high as $49.20 a barrel earlier, while benchmark Brent crude touched $49.96. The dollar rose modestly against the yen after touching a session high of 111.35 yen, just below Monday's nearly 6-month high of 111.36 yen, on data showing a surge in U.S. existing home sales last month. U.S. two-year Treasury note yields steadied after rising to a more than six-year high of 1.1070 percent earlier. New supply has weighed on shorter-dated debt as investors are increasingly nervous about impending interest rate hikes. "The sector that is most vulnerable to rate hikes is obviously the short end and intermediates, and there is some reason to believe that some people may shy away from the sector,” said Justin Lederer, an interest rate strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald in New York. Gold edged lower on reduced appetite for safe-haven assets. Spot gold prices were last down $1.3, or 0.11 percent, at $1,212.36 an ounce. (Additional reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru, Sabina Zawadzki in London and Karen Brettell and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Dan Grebler)