* Euro slips, yen ticks up vs U.S. dollar
* Brent crude drops below $40 a barrel
* Wall St flat as energy drags, consumer gains
(Updates with U.S. trading, changes dateline from previous
LONDON)
By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK, March 14 (Reuters) - A gauge of stocks across the
globe ticked up on Monday, with Wall Street shares again
tracking the price of oil lower and Europe up on bets banks will
benefit from monetary policy.
Oil prices fell as Iran dashed hopes of a coordinated
production freeze any time soon, returning the focus to the
supply glut that has sent prices crashing.
Energy sector stocks were the largest weight on the S&P 500,
which was down for only the second session in 10.
"You have a little pullback this morning and I don't see it
as anything more than that, unless something material, i.e. the
Fed goes back on their word, come Wednesday," said Andre Bakhos,
managing director at Janlyn Capital in Bernardsville, New
Jersey.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 5.21 points, or
0.03 percent, to 17,218.52, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 3.93 points,
or 0.19 percent, to 2,018.26 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC
added 5.01 points, or 0.11 percent, to 4,753.48.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 , which had
climbed 2.7 percent on Friday, was up 0.8 percent. MSCI's gauge
of stocks across major markets .MIWD00000PUS ticked up less
than 0.1 percent.
Attention switches this week to policy decisions from the
Bank of Japan (BOJ), 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
this will hinge on the health of the economy. Recent data has
shown above-forecast jobs creation but wage growth remains a
concern.
The BOJ began a two-day policy meeting on Monday and is
expected to keep policy unchanged after adopting negative
interest rates in late January.
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 $1.1096, having set a three-week high of
$1.1217 on Thursday. The yen JPY= strengthened less than 0.1
percent to 113.70 per U.S. dollar. Sterling GBP= fell 0.4
percent to $1.4329. The dollar index .DXY rose 0.4 percent.
"It seems like the market has sort of stabilized itself in
the former trading range we had before Draghi made the market
move in such a fashion," said Fabian Eliasson, vice president
for currency sales at Mizuho Corporate Bank in New York.
"I think everything this week is going to be wait-and-see
until Wednesday, leading up to the Fed decision," he said.
Brent crude oil LCOc1 , whose rise has helped buoy stocks
in recent weeks, fell below $40 a barrel, after Iran's oil
minister said on Sunday the OPEC member would join discussions
only once its own output reached 4 million barrels a day, about
twice its current output.
Brent last traded at $39.37, down 2.5 percent.
U.S. crude fell 4 percent to $36.95 per barrel.
The benchmark 10-year note US10YT=RR rose 8/32 in price to
yield 1.9503 percent from 1.977 percent on Friday.
Spot gold XAU slipped 0.3 percent, last trading at $1,244.