GLOBAL MARKETS-Nasdaq breaks 15-yr record; oil up on Middle East worry

* Nasdaq tops 15-yr closing record

* European shares slide after soft PMIs

* Oil rises on Middle East concern

* Energy shares, earnings lift U.S. stocks

(Adds close of U.S. markets, oil settlement prices)

By Chuck Mikolajczak

NEW YORK, April 23 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on

Thursday, with the Nasdaq index hitting a record closing high,

as corporate earnings and a rise in energy shares overshadowed

soft U.S. economic data, while oil prices climbed to the highest

levels of the year.

The gains pushed the Nasdaq above a record set in March

2000, the height of the dot-com boom. The index is up 353

percent from its October 2002 low after the technology bubble

burst.

"It has the potential to go up, absent some external event

that I can't predict." said Walter Price, senior portfolio

manager and managing director of the AllianzGI Global Technology

fund in San Francisco. "Companies look as though they ought to

power through this environment."

In 2000, "a lot of the high-growth companies were selling at

200 or 300 times next year's earnings," he added. "This is

nothing like that. This is a whole different world versus 2000."

A rise in oil prices helped lift energy shares 0.6

percent. Strong earnings from AT&T (Sao Paolo: ATTB34.SA - news) , up 4.2 percent to

$34.23, and eBay, up 3.8 percent to $58.89, helped

offset lackluster U.S. economic data.

Brent crude touched a high of $65.58, its highest

since December, and settled up 3.4 percent at $64.85 a barrel.

U.S. crude settled up 2.8 percent at $57.74 after Saudi

Arabia and its allies continued a bombing blitz in Yemen that

raised concerns about the security of Middle East oil supplies.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 20.42 points,

or 0.11 percent, to 18,058.69, the S&P 500 gained 4.97

points, or 0.24 percent, to 2,112.93 and the Nasdaq Composite

added 20.89 points, or 0.41 percent, to 5,056.06.

European shares slipped, with Germany's DAX index

underperforming following a disappointing purchasing managers'

survey, while weak results from Ericsson (Xetra: ERCA.DE - news) hit

technology stocks.

Overall, euro zone private-sector business growth was weaker

than forecast, despite help for exporters from a big fall in the

euro and the March launch of a sovereign bond-buying program by

the European Central Bank.

MSCI (NYSE: MSCI - news) 's all-country world index of equity

performance in 46 countries advanced 0.42 percent, while the

FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares closed

down 0.46 percent at 1,620.82. Germany's DAX dropped

1.2 percent.

U.S. Treasuries yields were little changed, hovering near

3-1/2 week highs after a broad sell-off in Treasuries, German

Bunds and British Gilts on Wednesday.

Benchmark 10-year notes were last up 6/32 in

price to yield 1.9524 percent.

The dollar weakened 0.7 percent against a basket of

major currencies in light of the soft U.S. data and waning fears

of a Greek default.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was expected to tell

Greece's prime minister in a meeting on Thursday that she wants

to keep Greece in the euro zone and avoid a default, but will

need commitments in technical talks on measures to make Greece's

public finances sustainable.

(Additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Nick

Zieminski, Meredith Mazzilli and Dan Grebler)