* Apple drags global shares lower
* Gold resumes fall
* Greek parliament vote eyed
By Jamie McGeever
LONDON, July 22 (Reuters) - Disappointment over U.S.
corporate earnings, most notably at Apple Inc AAPL.O , the
world's largest company, pushed stocks lower on Wednesday and
investors towards the shelter of bonds.
Retrenchment and caution dominated trading in other assets,
with the dollar slipping a little further from its recent highs
and commodities such as gold and oil resuming their downturn.
Stocks will look to corporate earnings on both sides of the
Atlantic for direction. Meanwhile, the Greek parliament will
vote on reforms it must undertake for talks on a multi-billion
euro bailout to start this week, which will help determine
broader sentiment in Europe.
The FTSEuroFirst 300 index of leading European shares fell
0.5 percent in early trade to 1,588 points .FTEU3 . Germany's
DAX .GDAXI fell 0.6 percent to 11,534 points and France's CAC
40 .FCHI was down 0.5 percent at 5,079 points.
Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE , which is more exposed to the
mining and energy sectors, was down 0.7 percent. British
investors are also awaiting the latest Bank of England policy
minutes, which may show a more hawkish tilt towards raising
rates.
"Despite a beat at the earnings level and a surge in revenue
from China, the market latched onto disappointing overall iPhone
shipments relative to street expectations," said Jim Reid at
Deutsche Bank in London, of Apple's results. ID:nL1N1012HZ
"Combined with a near-4 percent fall for Microsoft in
extended trading after a similarly disappointing report, (U.S.)
futures have fallen this morning."
S&P futures showed Wall Street expected to open down around
0.5 percent ESc1 .
European bourses were also weighed down by a 4 percent fall
in chip maker Arm Holdings ARM.L . Although ARM posted a 32
percent rise in second-quarter profit, the results from Apple, a
major customer, hit hard.
Earlier in Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific
shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS slid 1 percent, its biggest
decline in two weeks.
Japan's Nikkei stock index .N225 ended down 1.2 percent,
snapping its six-day rising streak and pulling away from
Tuesday's nearly four-week closing high as the Apple news
reverberated on related tech shares.
STERLING EFFORT
Following its tumble to a five-year low on Monday, investors
remained wary of gold. It reversed Tuesday's rebound to trade
down 0.7 percent on the day to $1,090.95 per ounce XAU= .
"We believe gold should range trade around current levels,
but do not dismiss the possibility of further price falls, given
the lack of safe-haven interest," Barclays commodities analysts
wrote in a note to clients.
Crude oil futures were still under pressure too, as
investors worried about ample supply. U.S. crude CLc1 was down
1.5 percent at $50.10 and Brent LCOc1 shed more than 1 percent
to $56.43.
In currencies, the euro edged up to $1.0950 EUR= ,
continuing its rebound from Monday's three-month low of $1.0808,
and the dollar index slipped 0.1 percent to 97.218 .DXY . On
Tuesday, it rose as high as 98.151, a level not seen since late
April.
Sterling was the biggest mover among major currencies. It
was up 0.4 percent against the dollar at $1.5615 GBP= ,
supported by expectations the Bank of England will raise
interest rates around the turn of the year.
On Greece, Standard & Poor's upgraded its sovereign credit
rating on Tuesday by two notches and revised its outlook to
stable from negative, citing euro zone countries' initial
agreement to start negotiations with Athens on a third bailout.
ID:nL5N1014AC
European bond markets awaited the Greek parliament vote,
sticking to narrow ranges. Benchmark 10-year Bund yields fell a
basis point to 0.77 percent EU10YT=RR , and Italian yields were
steady at 1.96 percent IT10YT=RR .
"The newsflow since last week's deal does not fill us with
great hope about the design of the pending deal, which is one
reason we retain a fairly pessimistic view about what has
been solved in Greece," said Michael Michaelides at RBS.
The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries slipped a basis point
to 2.33 percent US10YT=RR .