FOREX-Dollar slides as oil, stocks rally cuts haven demand

* U.S. continuing jobless claims fell, lifting dollar/yen

* Positive Treasury auction results lift risk demand

* Investors await U.S. GDP figures on Friday (Adds quote, updates prices)

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

NEW YORK, July 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar weakened against major currencies on Thursday as a rebound in global stocks and commodities on optimism about an economic recovery worldwide dimmed the greenback's safe-haven allure.

U.S. stock indexes .SPX jumped after a string of stronger-than-expected corporate results, while European shares.FTEU3 closed at their highest in nearly nine months.

Commodities also strengthened, with oil CLc1 rising above $66 a barrel. That pressured the yen as well, which tends to fall along with the dollar when there is demand for riskier assets.

A $28-billion seven-year U.S. Treasury auction on Thursday attracted strong demand, easing concerns about financing the massive U.S. budget deficit. The bid-to-cover ratio, which measures demand, was 2.63 after 1.92 on Wednesday.

"Today risk is on and it's helped a lot by the rally in equities," said Shaun Osborne, chief currency strategist at TD Securities in Toronto. "The auction results also helped risk appetite to a certain extent."

Indirect bidders, a gauge of foreign interest, accounted for 62 percent, following just 37 percent on Wednesday and 33 percent on Tuesday. For more, see [ID:nN30363691]

In late afternoon trading, the ICE Futures U.S. dollar index, a gauge of the greenback's performance against six other major currencies, fell 0.4 percent to 79.328 .DXY. It hit a 2009 low of 78.315 on Tuesday, before staging a strong rebound on Wednesday.

The dollar's losses were limited, however. Many investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of the first reading of second-quarter U.S. gross domestic product on Friday.

The economy is forecast to have contracted by 1.5 percent after a fall of 5.5 percent in the first three months of the year, according economists polled by Reuters.

The report "should be a pretty important piece of data for the recovery/recession debate that seems to be ongoing," said Adam Fazio, currency strategist at CIBC World Markets in New York.

He said CIBC is looking for "a much worse reading," and should the GDP data disappoint, the dollar could see "further strength" as investors look for safe-haven investments.

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