* 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 close of European markets)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Global equity markets edged
lower on Monday, pausing after a four-week rally ahead of policy
announcements from central banks in the U.S. and Japan later in
the week, while the dollar lost ground in the wake of soft U.S.
housing data.
Stock markets rallied last week on bets 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, which will issue a
policy statement at the conclusion of a two-day meeting on
Wednesday, 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
0.8 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. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N12Q128
"It is just a little bit of consolidation and people
re-evaluating," said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm
LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey.
"There is no question that the economic news is mixed, so I
don't know if that is telling anyone anything they don't already
know."
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 9.72 points, or
0.06 percent, to 17,636.98, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 1.96 points,
or 0.09 percent, to 2,073.19 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC
added 9.02 points, or 0.18 percent, to 5,040.88.
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 96.813 against a basket of major currencies on
lower U.S. bond yields and following the U.S. new-home sales
data. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N12Q2YR
Crude oil prices fell, with U.S. crude CLc1 off 1.6
percent to $43.90 and Brent down 0.8 percent to $47.60 as a
global supply glut pushed fuel storage sites close to capacity,
and as fewer speculators were willing to bet on a rise in
prices. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N12Q1CG
Prices on 10-year Treasuries US10YT=RR were up 7/32 in
price to yield 2.06 percent as they retreated from two-week
highs. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N12Q1HV
(Editing by Bernadette Baum)