* Euro, Sterling slip while yen flat vs U.S. dollar
* Brent crude drops below $40 a barrel
* Wall St little changed in lowest volume of 2016
(Updates prices, adds comment)
By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK, March 14 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Monday as
Iran dashed hopes of a coordinated production freeze, while the
dollar rose ahead of a policy meeting at the U.S. central bank.
A gauge of stocks across the globe ticked up, with Wall
Street weighed by commodity shares as Europe rose partly on a
positive view of the auto industry.
Attention switched this week to policy decisions from the
Bank of Japan, the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England,
among others. They follow last week's interest rate cut,
asset-purchase program extension and new cheap loans for banks
pledge at the European Central Bank.
The Fed, which ends its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday,
has said it is on track to raise rates gradually in 2016, but
doing so will hinge on the health of the economy. Recent data
has shown above-forecast jobs creation but wage growth remains a
concern.
The euro EUR= , which rose last week after ECB President
Mario Draghi signaled further rate cuts were unlikely, fell 0.5
percent on Monday to $1.1098. The yen was flat against the
greenback while sterling GBP= fell 0.6 percent to $1.4302. The
dollar index .DXY rose 0.5 percent.
"It's the combination of a market that overextended in the
opposite direction because of Draghi's 'no more rate cut'
comment and just some corrective natural price action into the
risk of (a Fed meeting) that could be a little bit more
hawkish," said Richard Scalone, co-head of foreign exchange at
TJM Brokerage in Chicago.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 was weighed by declines in basic
materials and energy shares as commodity prices fell. As they
also wait on the release of economic data, including U.S. retail
sales, investors continued to interpret the ECB's move.
"To me, it's one of those days were the (stock) market is
doing its best to digest some of those factors and to see what's
next," said Steven Baffico, chief executive officer at Four Wood
Capital Partners in New York.
Equity volume on U.S. exchanges was the lightest so far this
year.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 15.82 points,
or 0.09 percent, to 17,229.13, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 2.55
points, or 0.13 percent, to 2,019.64 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC added 1.81 points, or 0.04 percent, to 4,750.28.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 , which had
climbed 2.7 percent on Friday, ended up 0.67 percent with an
index of auto and autoparts shares up 1.56 percent. MSCI's gauge
of stocks across major markets .MIWD00000PUS ticked up 0.1
percent. Nikkei futures NKc1 rose 0.4 percent.
Brent crude oil LCOc1 , whose rise has helped buoy stocks
in recent weeks, fell below $40 a barrel, as U.S. crude
stockpiles continue to mount and Iran maintained little interest
in a global production freeze.
"We feel that the bulk of this stronger than expected 5-6
week price advance has been seen and that prices will be
shifting into a near term consolidation phase," said Jim
Ritterbusch of Chicago energy consultancy Ritterbusch &
Associates.
Brent last traded at $39.61, down 1.9 percent. U.S. crude
fell 3 percent to $37.34 per barrel.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note US10YT=RR rose
4/32 in price to yield 1.9627 percent from 1.977 percent on
Friday.
Spot gold XAU fell 1.1 percent, last trading at $1,234.
Copper CMCU3 dropped 0.3 percent.