World markets little changed ahead of Draghi, Fed minutes

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A global stocks index was little changed on Wednesday as strong U.S. earnings offset weaker European industrial data ahead of key central bank news.

Markets were looking ahead to a speech by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and minutes from the most recent Federal Reserve meeting, with special focus on any mention of a timeline to raise U.S. interest rates and the Fed's take on strengthening economic data.

Alcoa Inc reported results after Wall Street closed Tuesday, beating analysts' expectations and lifting the aluminum maker's stock more than 3 percent.

Wall Street opened higher, lifted by the good earnings mood, but gains are barely making a dent on losses sustained in the previous two sessions.

"The market was encouraged by Alcoa, especially since we were arguably oversold in the very short term," said Steve Sosnick, equity-risk manager at Timber Hill/Interactive Brokers Group in Greenwich, Connecticut.

"However, it's hard to predict big moves ahead of all the news coming out next week, and there's no reason to suspect we couldn't pull back further," he said, in reference to the heavy earnings calendar.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 49.19 points or 0.29 percent, to 16,955.81, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 7.42 points or 0.38 percent, to 1,971.13 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 23.24 points or 0.53 percent, to 4,414.70.

The FTSEuroFirst 300 index of leading European shares was down less than 0.1 percent <.FTEU3> and MSCI's global gauge of stocks <.MIWD00000PUS> ticked up less than 0.1 percent.

The dollar edged 0.15 percent lower against a basket of currencies <.DXY> and the euro strengthened 0.2 percent against the greenback .

Regarding the Fed minutes, any discussion by Fed members about a recent uptick in U.S. consumer prices will be key after Fed Chair Janet Yellen downplayed heating inflation data after the June meeting as being "noisy."

"The characterization by Fed Chair Yellen of the inflation pop-up as noise really took the wind out of the sails of the near-term hawks," said Steven Englander, global head of G10 foreign exchange strategy at CitiFX in New York.

Overnight, China said its consumer price index rose 2.3 percent in June from a year earlier, shy of the consensus forecast of 2.4 percent, and a sign economic activity may be cooling.

U.S. bond markets were steady ahead of the Fed minutes and Draghi's appearance in London, where two years ago he delivered his speech pledging to do "whatever it takes" to save the euro.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield was unchanged at 2.565 percent with traders setting up for $21 billion in 10-year note supply. The yield on Germany's Bund slipped to a 14-month low of 1.21 percent.

Upbeat U.S. employment data last week prompted some economists to predict the Fed would raise interest rates earlier than previously thought, but yields have since fallen, with investors cautious about the strength of the recovery.

Brent oil fell 0.5 percent to $108.35 per barrel and U.S. crude dropped 0.9 percent to $102.49.

Gold was up 0.5 percent at $1,324.70 an ounce.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos Additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica, Karen Brettell and Richard Leong; Editing by James Dalgleish)

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