By Jamie McGeever
LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks mostly halted their recent rally on Wednesday before the latest policy signal from the U.S. central bank, while UK stocks and bonds fell after Bank of England minutes showed two rate-setters voted to raise interest rates earlier this month.
Sterling jumped after the BoE minutes showed two of the nine policymakers unexpectedly voted to raise rates, while record-low money-market rates in the euro zone took the euro to its weakest against the dollar in almost a year.
Stocks had risen this week after strong U.S. housing data and lower-than-expected UK inflation figures, which suggested economic activity was rising but not fast enough to force interest rates higher any time soon. The BoE minutes prompted some to reassess, though.
"The voting has surely caught the market by surprise, given that the (latest) inflation number was so low, but now we know that we have two hawkish members in the committee," said Naem Aslam, chief market analyst at Avatrade. "This has lowered the bar for an increase in interest rates this year."
Later in the day, minutes from the last Federal Reserve policy meeting will be released. On Friday, Fed Chair Janet Yellen will address an annual gathering of policymakers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday.
Riskier assets had been underpinned by a shift in attention away from the Ukraine-Russia conflict, but investors used the relatively calm economic and political backdrop to take some money out of the market.
The MSCI index of world stocks <.MIWD00000PUS> slipped 0.1 percent to 428 points, the major European bourses fell by up to 0.2 percent and U.S. futures pointed to losses of around 0.2 percent at the open.
Britain's FTSE <.FTSE> was down a third of one percent at 6760 points, Germany's DAX <.GDAXI> was off a similar amount at 9300 points and France's CAX <.FCHI> was down 0.4 percent at 4236 points.
Shares in Denmark's Carlsberg
Earlier in Asia, the MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> inched up 0.1 percent, while Tokyo's Nikkei <.N225> ended the day flat.
Japan reported a wider-than-expected trade deficit in July of 964 billion yen, pushing the dollar as high as 103.26 yen
Sterling rose 0.25 percent to $1.6650
The euro remained under pressure, in part from the decline of overnight interbank lending rates in the euro zone, which are coming ever closer to zero. Eonia rates are now just 0.005 percent
The euro fell below $1.33
"This is a combination of expectations of very low rates for a very long period of time, but also a reflection that the market has raised the odds of the European Central Bank being drawn into taking more serious action," said Elwin de Groot, a senior market economist at Rabobank in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Key U.S. and euro zone government bond yields were little changed. The 10-year German government bond yield hovered just below 1 percent <10YT=RR>, the 2-year German yield was down slightly before an auction later in the day
The 10-year Treasury yield had risen for the last three days, rebounding from a 14-month low of 2.30 percent last week.
In commodities, gold was stuck below $1,300 an ounce
Brent crude futures recovered from near 14-month lows, ticking up a quarter of one percent to $101.80 a barrel
(Reporting by Jamie McGeever, additional reporting by Marius Zaharia; Editing by Larry King; To read Reuters Global Investing Blog click on http://blogs.reuters.com/globalinvesting; for the MacroScope Blog click on http://blogs.reuters.com/macroscope; for Hedge Fund Blog Hub click on http://blogs.reuters.com/hedgehub)
