Greek warning knocks euro, stocks steady

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The euro slid to two-week lows on Wednesday after a Greek official said the country may miss a debt repayment, while U.S. and European equity markets held near recent highs as traders awaited signals on Federal Reserve interest rate shifts.

U.S. Treasuries inched up on safe-haven buying caused by worries that Greece may be unable to make a 300 million euro repayment to the International Monetary Fund on June 5 unless foreign lenders distribute more aid.

The dollar gained for a third day, though many currency traders kept to the sidelines before the release of minutes from the Fed's April meeting of monetary policymakers.

The Greek parliamentary speaker said Athens will not make the June 5 payment unless it has a deal with creditors.

The euro last traded off 0.50 percent against the dollar at $1.1091 after touching a low of $1.1063.

The dollar index <.DXY> advanced 0.43 percent, in part because of a 0.50 percent rise against the Japanese yen that took the dollar over 121 yen for the first time in two months.

Wall Street was mixed. The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 11.67 points, or 0.06 percent, to 18,300.72, the S&P 500 <.SPX> was down 1.02 points, or 0.05 percent, to 2,126.81 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 0.86 points, or 0.02 percent, to 5,070.89.

Trading was muted before the 2:00 p.m. (1800 GMT) release of the details of the Fed's April meeting. The U.S. central bank has said it will raise rates only when data suggests that the economy is strengthening. Growth slowed to a crawl in the first quarter, and recent data has been mixed.

"There is a consensus that the Fed probably doesn't move until September and I don't think that will change today," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York.

European shares, after Tuesday's 1.65 percent surge, paused for breath on Wednesday, unable to get much of a boost from the euro's weakness.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading shares got a lift from telecoms deal-making and ended 0.50 percent at nearly 1614 points <.FTEU3>.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury last yielded 2.2567 percent, reflecting a price gain of 2/32. Most other maturities were also up in price but the 30-year was off 10/32 and yielding 3.0543 percent on growing speculation Fed policymakers may signal a closer-in start to rate hikes.

Most euro zone bond yields edged up, reversing earlier falls before Fed minutes.

Crude oil prices bounced up as government data showed that U.S. crude stocks fell last week for the third straight week. In the previous session oil slid 3 percent.

Brent jumped 1.4 percent to $64.89 a barrel while U.S. crude rose about 1.5 percent to $58.86. Both shed more than $2 a barrel on Tuesday.

(Reporting By Michael Connor in New York; Editing by Nick Zieminski and David Gregorio)

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