* Oil recovers from 1-month low
* Dovish Rosengren expects earlier Fed hike than does market
* Metals prices fall on China demand concern
* Defensive plays lead European shares higher
* Wall St little changed
(Adds open of U.S. markets, changes byline, dateline; previous
LONDON)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, April 4 (Reuters) - The dollar pulled off earlier
lows on Monday in the wake of comments from a U.S. Federal
Reserve official, keeping commodity prices under pressure while
global equity markets were little changed.
A typically dovish U.S. central banker, Boston Fed President
Eric Rosengren, said it was "surprising" that futures markets
currently imply one or zero rate hikes this year, a prediction
he said could prove "too pessimistic."
That moved the dollar .DXY up to a session high of 94.829
against a basket of major currencies. The greenback was last
down slightly at 94.554.
Investors have been trying to reconcile conflicting
statements from U.S. Federal Reserve officials in recent weeks
since the central bank issues its policy statement on March 16.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said last week the
central bank would proceed cautiously in raising rates, in
contrast to more hawkish comments from other Fed officials. The
apparent lack of unison has left investors uncertain in an
environment of mixed economic data.
"The Fed really for the first time has been sending kind of
mixed signals about the pace of raising rates," said Rick
Meckler, president of LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey
City, New Jersey.
"If the economy is good enough for them to raise rates that
could be a good move for stocks, if they are just raising rates
in anticipation of the economy picking up and it never does that
is a pretty negative sign."
New orders for U.S. factory goods fell in February and
business spending on capital goods was much weaker than
initially thought, the latest indications that economic growth
remained sluggish in the first quarter.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 31.81 points,
or 0.18 percent, to 17,760.94, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 5.5
points, or 0.27 percent, to 2,067.28 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC dropped 20.35 points, or 0.41 percent, to 4,894.19.
MSCI's index of world shares .MIWD00000PUS , edged up 0.09
percent, buyoed by gains in European stocks. The pan-European
FTSEurofirst 300 share index .FTEU3 rose 0.47 percent, led
higher by defensive stocks such as utilities and healthcare.
The move in the dollar kept pressure on oil, with Brent
crude LCOc1 , down 0.7 percent at $38.41, although it recovered
after dropping to $38.18, its lowest since March 4. U.S. crude
CLc1 was off 0.4 percent at $36.65.
Prices have fallen from above $100 a barrel since mid-2014
on a supply glut, bottoming at $27.10 in late January. Brent
topped $42.50 last month in anticipation of agreement among
producers to freeze output.
Copper prices CMCU3 , which are also sensitive to the value
of the dollar, hit a one-month low of $4,757.50 a tonne on
concern about Chinese demand and was last down 1.5 percent at
$4,761.
Gold XAU= fell for the second successive day, dropping
about 0.3 percent to $1,218.40 an ounce.
Benchmark U.S. 10-year notes US10YT=RR were last up 5/32
in price to yield 1.774 percent, down from 1.791 percent
Wednesday.