NEW YORK (Reuters) - European and U.S. shares rebounded on Tuesday and the battered pound rose as markets digested Britain’s vote last week to leave the European Union.

Bargain-hunting lifted stocks worldwide for the first time in three days, but there was still widespread uncertainty as the bloc’s leaders, including soon-to-be-ex UK Prime Minister David Cameron, held their first post-vote meeting in Brussels.

Britain’s finance minister, George Osborne, said the country would have to cut spending and raise taxes to stabilize the economy after a third credit ratings agency downgraded its debt.

“The lingering uncertainty favors further downside in the coming months as we have seen with other shocks of the past 5 years,” said Jeffrey Kleintop, chief global investment strategist at Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.

Still, the stock sell-off paused on Tuesday. European shares .FTEU3 rose 2.4 percent, clawing back some of their 10 percent loss the wake of the UK's vote.

Bank shares recovered and led markets higher. The S&P financial index .SPSY rose 2.47 percent.

Britain's Lloyds LLOY.L and Barclays BARC.L gained through the day, jumping 7.43 percent and 3.38 percent respectively. Italy's UniCredit CRDI.MI rose but then pulled back, last up 1.52 percent, and Spain's Bankia BKIA.MC surged more than 9 percent before falling back slightly to a 8.24 percent gain.

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On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 269.48 points, or 1.57 percent, to 17,409.72, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 35.55 points, or 1.78 percent, to 2,036.09 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 97.42 points, or 2.12 percent, to 4,691.87.

Sterling also got a reprieve, recovering early though stalling in late trading in London.

The pound rebounded by as much as 1.5 percent GBP=D4 from its 11 percent plunge after the British referendum. But that paled compared with the currency's decline to a 31-year low on Friday.

Sterling gained 0.86 percent against the greenback at $1.334 GBP=D4 and rose 2.32 percent to 137.02 against the yen GBPJPY=.

U.S. Treasury yields opened higher but then flattened as worries about sluggish economic growth played off the rebound in stocks.

“A lot of the drop in yields will be sustained even as fears of the Brexit outcome fades. There’s simply not enough growth,” said Robert Tipp, chief investment strategist at Prudential Fixed Income in Newark, New Jersey.

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Treasury prices, which more inversely to yields, added to gains after Moody’s Investors Service changed its outlook on 12 UK banks and building societies late on Tuesday.

Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR were little changed in price to yield 1.461 percent. The 10-year yield hit a near four-year low of 1.406 percent on Friday, Reuters data showed.

The 30-year bond US30YT=RR was up 4/32 in price to yield 2.274 percent, down 0.6 basis point from late on Monday.

Gold stepped back after two heady days. Spot gold XAU= was down 1 percent at $1,311.60 an ounce at 3:15 p.m. ET (1915 GMT), off an earlier low of $1,305.23.

Oil prices regained ground, rising 3 percent, while investors refocused on potential supply outages and drawdowns in crude.

U.S. crude oil futures CLc1 settled up 3.3 percent, or $1.52, at $47.85, while Brent crude LCOc1 rose 3 percent, or $1.42, at $48.58 per barrel.

Overnight in Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS ended up 0.5 percent.