* Wall Street dips after four-week S&P 500 rally
* Oil falls on supply glut concerns
* Dollar falls after U.S. housing data
(Updates with oil settlement prices, close of U.S. markets)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Global equity markets slipped
on Monday, pausing after a four-week rally ahead of policy
announcements from central banks in the United States and Japan
later in the week, while the dollar weakened in the wake of soft
U.S. housing data.
Stock markets rallied last week on the potential that
Japan's already-massive stimulus would be further increased
after China cut interest rates last week and the European
Central Bank indicated it may add to its asset purchase program
in December.
But comments Monday by a key economic adviser to Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe, who said the Bank of Japan did not need to
boost its monetary stimulus this week, tamped down those
expectations somewhat. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N12Q2T6
The U.S. Federal Reserve, meanwhile, will issue a policy
statement at the conclusion of a two-day meeting on Wednesday.
It is increasingly expected to hold off its first rate hike in
nearly a decade until next year.
U.S. stocks dipped, with the PHLX housing index .HGX down
0.4 percent after the Commerce Department said new U.S.
single-family home sales fell to near a one-year low in
September after two straight months of gains.
"I kind of expected it to be stuck in neutral," said Randy
Frederick, managing director of trading and derivatives for
Charles Schwab (N:SCHW) in Austin, Texas.
"People are just sitting tight waiting for the Fed meeting,
although frankly it is going to be a non-event. That doesn't
mean people won't get a little concerned about it."
FOUR-WEEK RALLY
After a gain of more than 7 percent over the past four
weeks, MSCI's all-country world index .MIWD00000PUS of the
equity performance of 46 countries shed 0.1 percent, while the
pan-regional FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index, tracking Europe's
300 largest companies, closed down 0.4 percent.
Shares in European markets were mostly lower, but Germany's
DAX .GDAXI managed a modest 0.06 percent gain after a business
sentiment survey showed that morale had fallen by less than
expected in October. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N12Q1EV
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 23.65 points,
or 0.13 percent, to 17,623.05, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 3.97
points, or 0.19 percent, to 2,071.18 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC added 2.84 points, or 0.06 percent, to 5,034.70.
About 170 companies in the benchmark S&P 500 index are
expected to report earnings this week, including Apple Inc
AAPL.O on Tuesday.
Thomson Reuters data shows third-quarter earnings are
expected to decrease 2.8 percent from a year ago, a slight
improvement from the 4.2 percent decline expected at the
beginning of the month.
The dollar .DXY fell from a 2-1/2 month high and was off
0.3 percent to 96.837 against a basket of major currencies on
lower U.S. bond yields and the U.S. new-home sales data.
Crude oil prices fell, as U.S. crude CLc1 settled down 1.4
percent to $43.98 and Brent settled 0.9 percent lower to $47.54
a barrel on worries that the oversupply in oil products would
swell from unseasonably warm weather and the waning maintenance
cycle for U.S. refineries.
U.S. natural gas futures NGc1 briefly fell 10 percent to a
fresh three-year low as the market focused on forecasts for
continued warm weather at the start of the winter heating
season.
Prices on 10-year Treasuries US10YT=RR were up 8/32 to
yield 2.0564 percent, down from two-week highs.
(Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski)