TREASURIES-Prices pull back as Wall St jumps, oil steadies

* Ten-year yield back over 2 percent

* Long bond posts biggest declines

* Wall St gains top 1 percent for second day (Adds late prices, quotes)

By Michael Connor

NEW YORK, Jan 8 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury debt prices fell back on Thursday as Wall Street rallied and oil prices steadied, on growing confidence European policymakers will launch a bond-buying program to combat slowing economic growth.

Prices of benchmark 10-year Treasuries were off 20/32 and yielding just over 2 percent after dipping below that level on Tuesday for the first time since October.

Thirty-year Treasuries, whose yields on Tuesday approached record lows set in July 2012, last yielded 2.5972 percent on Thursday. The long bond, which rose sharply in a government bond rally, was off 1-26/32 in price.

Shorter maturities had smaller price declines.

"With concerns that the market has that the Fed will raise rates this year, people have been more willing to go further out," said Ellis Phifer, market strategist at Raymond James in Memphis, Tennessee. "A lot of that has to do with Europe."

Long-dated European yields are much lower than their U.S. rivals, with Germany's 10-year currently yielding 0.5 percent and France's 10-year at 0.79 percent.

The gap (NYSE: GPS - news) is in part due to better U.S. growth figures and expectations the Fed will soon raise rates, while the European Central Bank eyes adding stimulus.

Treasury prices dropped in early overseas trading, as stocks in Japan and Europe rose, and the rally continued on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 gained 1.6 percent.

"What's going on in Treasuries has nothing to do with what is going on in the U.S. and everything to do with what is going on in Europe and with what is going on in the energy complex," said Eric Green, head of U.S. rates and economic research at TD Securities in New York.

Steadier oil prices, with Brent crude flat for much of the trading day before dipping about 2 percent to $50.17 a barrel, encouraged risk taking by investors spooked by a long slide in oil that suggests struggling global economic growth.

More cause for speculation the ECB may soon start government bond buying, or quantitative easing, came on Thursday from German industrial orders, which fell 2.4 percent in November. That was more than expected. The equity markets have rebounded from recent weakness as a result, sapping some interest in bonds.

U.S. stocks climbed more than 1 percent for a second day after snapping on Wednesday a five-day losing streak. The advance was broad, with the materials, energy and technology sectors each up more than 2 percent.

Treasuries showed little reaction to U.S. jobless claims. The key jobs report is released Friday. (Reporting By Michael Connor in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)