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(Reuters) – Global stocks edged higher and U.S. Treasuries prices rose on Monday as expectations of further stimulus from top central banks gave support to markets, while oil prices were volatile on concerns over a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico.

U.S. stocks rose, led by gains in Apple (AAPL.O), which hit a new high above $680 after a patent court win over South Korea’s Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) on Friday.

Investors are looking ahead to a meeting of central bankers at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday for clarity on what the Federal Reserve will do to stimulate the economy and how the European Central Bank will tackle the bloc’s credit crisis.

“There’s not much going on as we look ahead to Jackson Hole, and we might make some new lows in terms of trading volume going into that as investors wait,” said Dan Veru, chief investment officer at Palisade Capital Management LLC in Fort Lee, New Jersey, which oversees $3.8 billion.

Last week, volume in U.S. equities was among the lowest so far this year and a holiday in the UK kept trading light in Europe on Monday.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was down 0.31 point, or 0.00 percent, at 13,157.66. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index .SPX was up 2.89 points, or 0.20 percent, at 1,414.02. The Nasdaq Composite Index.IXIC was up 10.89 points, or 0.35 percent, at 3,080.68.

A gauge of world equities .WORLD was up 0.2 percent and the pan-European FTSE 300 .FTEU3 stock index provisionally closed up 0.5 percent.

U.S. crude fell 1.1 percent to $95.06 a barrel, while Brent crude futures fell 0.8 percent in volatile trading after giving up gains of more than $1 per barrel as tropical storm Isaac approached the Gulf of Mexico and traders assessed the prospect of lower crude oil use by temporarily closed U.S. refineries.

“Traders realize that there is more refining capacity at risk from this storm, and that the risk is also to oil consumption,” said analyst Tim Evans at Citi Futures Perspective in New York. “That’s why we see today that crude prices are off and near-term gasoline prices are rising. It is similar to the price action we had ahead of Hurricane Katrina.”

The euro was little changed against the U.S. dollar, holding most of its recent gains after a bigger-than-expected drop in German business sentiment raised hopes the euro zone’s largest economy will do more to revive the bloc’s growth.

The euro edged up less than 0.1 percent to $1.2513 holding below a seven-week peak of $1.2589 set last Thursday.

“The news clearly shows that Germany cannot escape unharmed if the rest of the euro zone falls into a deep recession,” said Boris Schlossberg, managing director of FX Strategy at BK Asset Management in New York.

“Therefore policymakers may now temper their insistence on austerity and instead will pursue more stimulative policies in order to revive growth.”

This view got a boost on Monday from Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans, who said in remarks prepared for delivery in Hong Kong that the Fed should start a new round of monetary stimulus immediately, buying bonds for as long as it takes to produce a steady decline in the jobless rate.

The possibility of more bond buying from the Fed lifted prices of U.S. Treasuries.

The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was up 10/32, with the yield at 1.6506 percent.

European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi signaled earlier this month that the bank may start buying government debt to reduce crippling Spanish and Italian borrowing costs, comments that fueled a broad-based upturn in sentiment on global markets.

However, over the weekend Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann likened the ECB’s bond-buying plans to a dangerous drug, pointing to growing unease over the policy.

Gold prices hit their highest since mid-April on bets of more Fed easing, but then steadied on caution ahead of the Jackson Hole meeting.

(Additional reporting by Wanfeng Zhou, Ryan Vlastelica, Karen Brettell and David Sheppard; Editing by Dan Grebler)