GLOBAL MARKETS-Dollar marches to four-year high; euro, oil wilt

* Dollar basket at 4-year high, Euro near 2-year low

* European stocks see small gains, Russia rebound continues

* Wall Street ready for flurry of data, more Fed input

* Treasury/Bund gap widest in 15 years

* Brent crude under $97, capped by ample supply

By Marc Jones

LONDON, Sept 25 (Reuters) - The dollar hit a four-year high

and oil hovered near a two-year low on Thursday, as investors

wagered the United States will be one of the few economies

healthy enough to wean itself off central bank aid in the near

future.

Wall Street was expected start the day little changed,

according to futures prices, with traders gearing up for

employment and PMI data and another day of deciphering

the Federal Reserve's policy signals.

European shares saw small gains as Britain and

France debated joining U.S.-led military action against Islamist

militants and as the euro sank to a 22-month low on bets the

European Central bank is heading for a money-printing drive.

ECB President Mario Draghi reiterated in a newspaper

interview on Thursday there was more the euro zone central bank

can do if needed, having already promised to keep record low

interest rates in place for potentially years.

His words came as the ECB released its latest batch of

lending data, which showed, as it has for months, that there is

little in the way of demand for credit in the euro zone's

still-struggling economy.

"ECB President Mario Draghi continues to beat the QE

(quantitative easing) drums ... so it's hardly surprising that

euro/dollar is trading at even lower levels this morning," said

Esther Reichelt, a currency strategist at Commerzbank (Xetra: CBK100 - news) ,"

Britain's FTSE dipped but Germany's DAX and

France's CAC rose 0.2-0.3 percent to put the region in

the black after a choppy few days.

The currency market saw most of the action, however, with

the euro falling briefly below $1.27 for the first time

since November 2012 as the ECB data cast a shadow.

The dollar, which had its own momentum following some

strong U.S. housing data on Wednesday, powered up 0.35 percent

to a fresh four-year high against a basket of currencies.

A key factor was widening yield differentials between U.S.

10-year government bonds and their German

counterparts. The difference is now the biggest in

nearly 15 years and is driving more investors to buy the dollar.

http://link.reuters.com/sah92w

The greenback was also within touching distance of its

recent six-year high against the yen and was exerting

broad downward pressure on commodities markets which are largely

priced in dollars.

Brent crude was stuck below $97 a barrel having hit

its lowest in 26 months, with abundant supply also continuing to

drag on prices.

Gold extended its recent losses too, reacting to stronger

equities and the robust U.S. economic data that curbed its

safe-haven appeal.

RUSSIA REBOUND

With so much focus currently on the U.S. economy, weekly

unemployment claims and August durable goods data, both due at

1230 GMT, and Markit (Stuttgart: A1139A - news) 's 1345 GMT preliminary September services

Purchasing Managers Index, were set to be closely scrutinised.

Geopolitical uncertainty rumbled in the background as air

strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria continued, but

there were more positive signs on the tensions with Russia over

Ukraine.

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko said that for the first

time in many months no deaths or wounded had been reported in

the past 24 hours in the conflict with pro-Russian separatists

indicating the ceasefire "has finally begun working".

That helped Russian stocks rise for the third

day running, with investors also sensing the European Union may

decide to ease some of its sanctions against Russia by the end

of the month.

The Asian day was mixed. MSCI (NYSE: MSCI - news) 's index of Asia-Pacific shares

outside Japan fell 0.4 percent after touching a

four-month low, though Tokyo's high-flying Nikkei jumped

1.1 percent as the yen continued to bow to the dollar.

Emerging markets, particularly in Asia and Latin America,

continued to feel the strain of the stronger dollar. EM shares

saw their 14th fall in 16 sessions having just lost

their year-to-date lead on developed market stocks.

The New Zealand dollar meanwhile hit a one-year low

after Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Graeme Wheeler ramped

up his recent warnings about the level of the currency.

"The Bank's analysis indicates that the real exchange rate

is well above its sustainable level, and also above levels

justified by short-term business cycle factors," he said in a

statement that caught markets off-guard.

It also inflicted some collateral damage on its Antipodean

cousin, the Australian dollar, which fell to $0.8813,

its lowest since early February.

"The statement itself was another intervention threat. The

Reserve Bank is saying that even down at these levels the kiwi

is too high," said Imre Speizer, currency strategist at Westpac.

(Additional reporting by Anirban Nag in London; Editing by

Catherine Evans)