* Caterpillar earnings highlight concerns about economicpeak
* U.S. bond yields rise past 3 pct, 2011 highs next focus
* EM currencies feel heat of higher U.S. yields
* European shares fall 0.3-0.9 pct
* Turkey hikes rates, Facebook status update coming
By Marc Jones
LONDON, April 25 (Reuters) - Shares were on their way to thelongest losing streak of the year on Wednesday, as an advance inU.S. bond yields beyond 3 percent and warnings from top globalfirms about rising costs fed fears that a boom in earnings mayhave peaked.
All eyes will be on the scandal-hit social media firmFacebook
Falls in Asia's and then Europe's main bourses pushed the47-country MSCI world share index
Tech-heavy Taiwan shares
Wall Street looked set to follow suit
It has been down to a mix of factors. A strong U.S. economyand rising commodity prices which are increasing the chance ofmore U.S. interest rate hikes, as well higher debt and improvingrelations between Washington and China and North Korea.
"The now healthier global economy justifies these higheryields," JPMorgan Asset Management's Seamus Mac Gorain said.
"We expect 10-year Treasuries (yields) to end the yearbetween 3 and 3-1/2 percent. A move beyond this level wouldlikely require an acceleration of inflation in the euro zone andJapan, which is not yet evident."
Euro zone bond yields - yields are a proxy of borrowingcosts - were dragged up in the slipstream of the U.S. movesthough Thursday's looming European Central Bank (ECB) meetingensured there was a touch of caution.
Markets want to know when the ECB plans to wind down its2.55-trillion-euro stimulus programme. One of its policymakers,France's Francois Villeroy de Galhau, said on Tuesday the weakerrun of recent economic data was expected to pass.
The pan-European STOXX 600
S&P E-mini futures
Industrial heavyweight Caterpillar
"We've seen quite a lot of companies announcingabove-estimate earnings and their shares falling sharply,"Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities senior investmentstrategist Norihiro Fujito said.
Reuters data shows that analysts are now estimating bumper21.1 percent growth in the January-March quarter among U.S.S&P500 firms.
Fujito noted major financial shares such as Goldman Sachs
"The market reaction so far feels as if we are starting tosee an end of its long rally since 2009. Investors could bethinking that the best time will be soon behind us," he said.
STATUS UPDATE
Facebook's results are due after the closing bell. Revenuesare expected to be up sharply but focus will all be on whatimpact the scandal over the misuse of tens of millions of itsusers' data has had on usage of the social media site.
Creeping gains in U.S. Treasury yields are also fuellingnerves that portfolio managers may move money into saferfixed-income securities at the expense of riskier assets such asstocks and emerging markets.
The 10-year U.S. Treasuries yield
Fed Funds rate futures prices
The impact is already reverberating in many emergingmarkets, with JPMorgan's emerging market bond index
Turkey's central bank took what was seen as a crucialinterest rate decision. The lira has tumbled to all-time lowsthis year, stoking inflation, and its slightly larger-than-expected 75 basis points hike to 13.5 percent kept its marketslargely in check.
In Indonesia, a market with one of the largest exposures toforeign portfolio holdings, the authorities have beenintervening heavily to put a floor under the rupiah
The Indian rupee hit a 13-month low
The dollar also continued gaining against the majorcurrencies, setting new 2-1/2-month highs of 109.21 yen
Oil prices were broadly steady below the more thanthree-year highs hit in the previous session. Rising U.S. fuelinventories and production weighed on an otherwise heavilybullish market.
Brent
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano in TokyoEditing by Louise Ireland and Alexandra Hudson) ((marc.jones@thomsonreuters.com; +44 (0)207 542 9033; ReutersMessaging: marc.jones.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net Twitter@marcjonesrtrs))
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