GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks rally on earnings; gold hits record

* Stocks rise on upbeat U.S., European corporate earnings

* Australian dollar hits post-float high vs dollar

* Gold touches an all-time high above $1,500/ounce (Updates prices, adds details, comment)

By Wanfeng Zhou

NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - Upbeat earnings and outlooks from companies including chipmaker Intel lifted global stocks and fueled risk appetite on Wednesday, driving commodities higher and the Australian dollar to a post-float high.

Broad weakness in the U.S. dollar and a well-received bond auction from Spain helped push the euro to its highest in 15 months, while gold set new record highs above $1,500 an ounce.

Solid corporate earnings in the U.S. and Europe bolstered optimism about the economy and offset concerns of sovereign debt problems on both sides of the Atlantic after Standard & Poor's on Monday downwardly revised its outlook for the United States' prized AAA credit rating.

"What you've seen over the last couple of days is some very good news that has come out on the earnings front -- you are starting to see much sounder beats as it relates to companies," said Burt White, managing director and chief investment officer, LPL Financial in Boston.

World equities measured by MSCI All-Country World Index <.MIWD00000PUS> advanced 2 percent, extending the previous session's 0.5 percent rise and further recovering from Monday's 1.6 percent loss.

Intel posted higher than expected sales and forecast quarterly revenues well above Wall Street's estimates, while the world's biggest cosmetics group, L'Oreal , and carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen also came in with robust figures.

Major U.S. stock indexes soared. The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was up 189.06 points, or 1.54 percent, at 12,454.98. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was up 18.12 points, or 1.38 percent, at 1,330.74. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was up 54.23 points, or 1.97 percent, at 2,799.14.

Japan's Nikkei average <.N225> rose 1.8 percent, snapping a three-day losing run, and the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> rose 1.7 percent. Emerging market stocks <.MSCIEF> climbed 2.4 percent. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Asset returns in 2011:http://r.reuters.com/zub29r

Inflation-adjusted vs. nominal gold price:

http://r.reuters.com/ren88r ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

Societe Generale, however, said in a note that hedge funds were cautious on U.S. equities, keeping short positions on the S&P 500 <.SPX> and the Russell 2000 <.RUT>, though they were net long on Japanese equities.

DEBT WORRIES

Yields on 10-year Spanish government bonds fell to 5.46 percent after Spain saw solid demand for 10- and 13-year bonds at an auction, though speculation of debt restructuring by Greece forced Madrid to pay higher yields than a month ago to attract investors. [ID:nLDE73I1P8]

The euro rose 1.2 percent versus the dollar to $1.4512 , pulling further away from this week's low of around $1.4155. Traders said stop-losses were triggered through last week's high of $1.4521 and on the break of $1.4530.

Renewed pressure on Greece to explore a debt restructuring, [ID:nLDE73J0AT] has rattled peripheral debt markets in recent sessions pushing Greek and Portuguese bond yields to new highs.

"All in all, relatively reassuring results providing no indication Spain's decoupling from the periphery is under immediate threat. That said, the risk of contagion has certainly not been taken off the table," said Richard McGuire, rate strategist at Rabobank.

Higher-yielding currencies rose, with the Australian dollar up 1.5 percent at $1.0678 after hitting a post-float high of $1.0692.

Against a basket of currencies <.DXY>, the U.S. dollar fell 0.7 percent to 74.354.

The soft dollar boosted commodities, with copper up 2.3 percent and Brent crude 1.9 percent to above $123 a barrel, recovering from a 1.7 percent drop in the previous two sessions.

Gold breached $1,500 an ounce for the first time and silver hit a 31-year high. Concerns about government debt problems, inflation and turmoil in the Middle East also helped boost gold prices. (Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak, Barani Krishnan and Nick Olivari in New York and Dominic Lau in London; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)