Trader's Highlight

DJI-NEW YORK, July 1 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday, the start of the third quarter, as reassuring manufacturing data from China, Europe and the United States reinforced hopes that the world's economy is on the road to recovery.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 57.06 points, or 0.68 percent, to 8,504.06. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> gained 4.01 points, or 0.44 percent, to 923.33. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> shot up 10.68 points, or 0.58
percent, to 1,845.72.

The unemployment rate is expected to have crept up to 9.6 percent -- its highest since June 1983 -- from 9.4 percent in May. The job data is due at 8:30 a.m. (1230 GMT) on Thursday.

NYMEX-NEW YORK, July 1 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil futures ended lower on Wednesday, pressured by bigger-than-expected increases in gasoline and distillate inventories last week and as traders shrugged off a larger-than forecast drawdown in crude stocks.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, August crude settled down 58 cents, or 0.83 percent, at $69.31 a barrel, trading from $68.52 to $71.85. Tuesday's $73.38 peak was the highest intraday front-month price since Oct. 21's $75.69.

CBOT-SOYBEANS - July up 32-1/4 cents to $12.58-1/2. November up 34-1/2 at $10.15-1/2.

Notched a 2-1/2-week top on tight stocks of soy, weak dollar and fund buying.
Talk China buying old-crop and new-crop U.S. soybeans.

CBOT-SOYOIL - July up 0.80 cent per lb at 35.82 cents. Rebounding from Tuesday's sell-off. Supported by gains in soybeans.

FCPO-JAKARTA, July 1 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm futures bounced back, up 1.3 percent on Wednesday after trading lower in the previous three consecutive trading days, mainly supported by a rise in prices of soybean oil and crude oil, traders said.

The benchmark September palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose 29 ringgit, or 1.3 percent, to 2,259 ringgit ($642.31) a tonne. Overall traded volume was 12,514 lots at 25 tonnes each.

REGIONAL EQUITIES-BANGKOK, July 1 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian stock markets
ended mixed on Wednesday, with Indonesia climbing amid rate cut expectations while Singapore and Malaysia recouped early losses, pulled up by banks and developers.

Singapore's index <.FTSTI> ended up 0.8 percent, after sliding earlier, with developer CapitaLand up 1.1 percent, DBS Group Holdings rising 1.5 percent and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp 1.1 percent higher.

Malaysia <.KLSE> closed 0.4 percent higher at 1079.40, reversing a small loss in early trade. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) <.KLSE> had ended flat on Tuesday after Malaysia's prime minister unveiled a raft of measures aimed at boosting investment in the slumping economy.

Chris Oh, an analyst at JP Morgan, said the positive steps would take time to make an impact, especially as investors would be wary about how long it would take to implement them.

"We believe the market is ripe for consolidation and would look at lower KLCI entry levels of close to 950-1000 while awaiting the positive feedback loop from the stimulus packages, new policy measures, low interest rates, and stabilisation of the
global economy to feed through earnings momentum," he said.