* Wall Street ends flat, Dow snaps 8-day win streak
* Egypt's Mubarak relinquishes powers but hangs on
* U.S. weekly jobless claims drop to 2-1/2-year low
* U.S. dollar rallies on jobless claims report
* Portugal debt concerns weigh on euro
(Updates with U.S. market close, Mubarak, comment)
By Daniel Bases
NEW YORK, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Wall Street stocks ended flat
after a late buying surge as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak
said he would relinquish powers but not step down, while upbeat
weekly U.S. jobless claims data boosted the U.S. dollar.
The greenback gained after the U.S. Labor Department
reported an unexpected drop in initial claims for unemployment
benefits to the lowest level in 2-1/2 years.
Weak results from computer networking giant Cisco Systems
Inc <CSCO.O> helped end an eight-day win streak for the Dow
industrials. Disappointing results for Swiss bank Credit Suisse
<CSGN.VX> and Diageo <DGE.L>, the world's largest spirits
maker, weighed on European shares.
Oil prices rose in anticipation of Mubarak stepping aside
and extended those gains in post-settlement trade.
Gold recovered lost ground as the immediate reaction to
Mubarak's announcement alleviated some investor anxiety,
although the political upheaval appears far from over as
Egypt's streets erupted in rage when he did not resign after
two weeks of deadly protests.
The Van Eck Market Vectors exchange-traded fund <EGPT.P>
ended up 0.45 percent, cutting gains late when it appeared that
Mubarak was not stepping down. Previously, the fund had risen
as much as 5.8 percent.
Mubarak said he is delegating powers to newly appointed
Vice President and trusted former intelligence chief, Omar
Suleiman.
"Egypt stopped us from dropping lower, but the low volume
means that people are skeptical of the climb we've had,"
Michael Nasto, senior trader at U.S. Global Investors Inc in
San Antonio, Texas, said of the stock markets' movement.
By the close of trade the Dow Jones industrial average
<> fell 10.60 points, or 0.09 percent, to 12,229.29. The
Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> climbed 0.99 point, or 0.07
percent, to 1,321.87. The Nasdaq Composite Index <> edged
up 1.38 points, or 0.05 percent, to 2,790.45.
Cisco's stock fell 14.16 percent to $18.92 a day after
warning about dwindling public spending and weaker margins. In
Europe, Credit Suisse missed profit expectations because of
debt charges, and Diageo missed expectations with a 9 percent
rise in half-year earnings.
While earnings from Cisco disappointed, benchmark indexes
are still hovering near 2-1/2 year highs on generally positive
corporate news and economic data.
The latest reading of U.S. earnings, for instance, showed
that of the companies listed on the Standard & Poor's 500
index, 72 percent of those reporting have beaten analysts' mean
quarterly estimates, according to Thomson Reuters data.
MSCI's all-country world index <.MIWD00000PUS> fell 0.53
percent, pressured in particular by emerging markets. The EM
sub-index lost 1.89 percent.
Europe's FTSEurofirst 300 <> closed off 0.18 percent,
a third consecutive down day, although it pared its losses on
then-speculative news reports of a potential exit of Mubarak.
Japan's Nikkei index <> closed down 0.1 percent.
Heading into Friday's trading activity in Tokyo, March
Nikkei stock futures pointed to a weaker open, with contracts
traded in Chicago down 20 points to 10,655 <0#NK>.
DOLLAR SURGE
The dollar's rise accelerated after the U.S. weekly jobless
claims report showed a drop in the latest week to a seasonally
adjusted 383,000, the lowest since July 2008.
While the data underpinned the greenback's gains, investors
remain worried about Europe's lack of progress in tackling a
sovereign debt crisis which undermined the euro.
"Higher yields have benefited the dollar, while Portuguese
10-year bond yields are uncomfortably above 7 percent, which is
reminding investors that the stress in the euro zone periphery
has not disappeared," said Win Thin, global head of emerging
markets strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York.
The euro, which hit a 12-week high above $1.38 this month,
struggled as investors drove Portuguese bond yields to their
highest since the currency was introduced in 1999.
Portugal is considered at risk of becoming the next euro
zone country to need a bailout. The European Central Bank
stepped in to buy Portuguese bonds to help stabilize the
fragile market.
The euro fell 0.93 percent to $1.3602 <EUR=>. The dollar
rose 1.17 percent against the Swiss franc to 0.9686 francs
<CHF=> and rose 0.93 percent against the yen to 83.15 <JPY=>.
U.S. Treasury debt prices fell, renewing their recent
sell-off, as traders sold older issues to make room for $16
billion in 30-year bonds <US30YT=RR> in this week's quarterly
refunding.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, March crude <CLH1> was
up 85 cents to $87.56 a barrel, after settling up only 2 cents,
or 0.02 percent, at $86.73 a barrel.
Spot gold <XAU=> dropped 0.2 percent to $1,360.05 an
ounce.
(Additional reporting by Frank Tang, Julie Haviv, Ryan
Vlastelica, Jeremy Gaunt, William James, Richard Leong, Rodrigo
Campos, Steven C. Johnson, Neal Armstrong and Brian Gorman;
Editing by James Dalgleish and Dan Grebler)
