Oil gains ahead of U.S. data, dollar slips

By Rodrigo Campos and Herbert Lash

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices rose to a near one-month high on Tuesday on expectations of lower U.S. crude inventories, while the dollar eased as investors remained cautious ahead of meetings between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The upcoming French presidential election also kept investors cautious as political risk concerns remained active ahead of the Trump-Xi meetings this Thursday and Friday.

U.S. stocks edged higher, following modest gains in Europe, with the energy and industrials sectors helping buoy Wall Street and European shares.

Global and U.S. crude oil benchmarks rose to their highest since March 8, having recovered on expectations the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other producers would cut output.

"OPEC compliance is still holding better than we expected with next week's release of various monthly agency reports likely to confirm," Jim Ritterbusch, president of Chicago-based energy advisory firm Ritterbusch & Associates, said in a note.

U.S. crude rose 79 cents to settle up at $51.03 a barrel and Brent settled up $1.05 to $54.17.

The American Petroleum Institute will report inventory data at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT) on Tuesday, while the U.S. Energy Information Administration will announce official figures on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. EDT. [API/S]

The safe-haven yen advanced to a one-week high against the dollar and a 4-1/2-month peak versus the euro ahead of the Trump-Xi summit at the U.S. president's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

The dollar index <.DXY> rose 0.03 percent, with the euro down 0.01 percent to $1.0667. The Japanese yen gained 0.14 percent versus the greenback at 110.76 per dollar.

Industrial and material stocks got a boost after Trump said the U.S. infrastructure bill may top $1 trillion and that his administration was seeking a major "haircut" on the Dodd-Frank banking regulation, rekindling some of his campaign promises.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> closed up 39.03 points, or 0.19 percent, to 20,689.24. The S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 1.32 points, or 0.06 percent, to 2,360.16 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 3.93 points, or 0.07 percent, to 5,898.61.

In Europe, the pan-regional FTSEurofirst 300 index <.FTEU3> rose 0.22 percent to close at 1,497.77 while MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe <.MIWD00000PUS> gained 0.01 percent.

Benchmark U.S. Treasury yields touched their lowest in more than five weeks before edging higher to trade little changed on doubts about Trump's ability to boost fiscal stimulus.

Yields on benchmark 10-year notes dropped to 2.314 percent, their lowest since Feb. 24, but prices later fell and yields rose 2.3605 percent.

South Africa's rand and government bonds recovered after a sharp sell-off following S&P Global Ratings' decision to cut the country's credit rating to sub-investment grade, while stocks rose led by bullion shares.

The rand was 1.06 percent stronger at 13.5250 per dollar after falling earlier in the session to a near 3-months low of 13.9400.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, additional reporting by Scott DiSavino and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York and Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bangalore; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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