* Wall Street wavers as growth fears offset strong results
* Bonds rise with eye on Fed meeting, economic growth
* Dollar falls vs euro; full focus on Fed meeting
(Adds opening of U.S. markets, changes byline, dateline;
previous SINGAPORE)
By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) - Wall Street wavered, oil
slipped and the dollar weakened further against the euro in
thin trading on Monday as major European markets were shut for
Easter.
U.S. stocks were little changed, just below three-year
highs, after strong first-quarter earnings. Seventy-five
percent of S&P 500 companies that have reported beat analysts'
expectations, just above the average of the past four quarters.
For details see [].
Although oil prices turned lower in choppy trade, crude's
recent powerful surge is offsetting positive momentum from
earnings, and as the day progresses stocks could fall, said
Kevin Kruszenski, head of listed trading at KeyBanc Capital
Markets in Cleveland.
"I could see some profit-taking after the advance we've
had," Kruszenski said.
A more tempered view of economic growth was taking hold
across many markets.
"(There's a) fundamental bias that the data is indeed
slowing and higher gas prices will take their toll on the
consumer," said David Ader, senior government bond strategist
at CRT Capital Group in Stamford, Connecticut.
The Dow Jones industrial average <> was down 23.61
points, or 0.19 percent, at 12,482.38. The Standard & Poor's
500 Index <.SPX> was down 1.70 points, or 0.13 percent, at
1,335.68. The Nasdaq Composite Index <> was up 2.04
points, or 0.07 percent, at 2,822.20.
U.S. government debt prices rose as traders banked on the
idea that even as the Federal Reserve's second bond-buying
program nears the end, the Fed will hold on to its portfolio
and its current level of monetary accommodation for some time.
[]
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note <US10YT=RR> was up
2/32 in price to yield 3.39 percent.
With European markets closed and no major U.S. economic
reports on the calendar, the two-day meeting of the Federal
Open Market Committee that ends Wednesday will be the key event
traders focus on to gauge the direction of monetary policy.
Traders and investors keenly await a planned news
conference by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke after the FOMC meeting
ends to see how the Fed plans to end its easy monetary policy.
The conference is the first regularly scheduled briefing by
a Fed chief in the U.S. central bank's 97-year history.
"The bond and currency market reaction is still an unknown
and a significant risk," said Camilla Sutton, chief currency
strategist at Scotia Capital in Toronto.
The euro <EUR=> was up 0.14 percent at $1.4576, but the
dollar was up 0.1 percent against a basket of major currencies
<.DXY> at 74.070.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar <JPY=> was up 0.31
percent at 82.08 yen.
U.S. light sweet crude oil <CLc1> fell 66 cents to $111.63
a barrel.
Spot gold prices <XAU=> fell $2.13 to $1,505.50 ounce.
(Reporting by Julie Haviv, Edward Krudy and Ellen Freilich in
New York, Barbara Lewis in Rabat, Morocco, Masayuki Kitano in
Singapore and Chikafumi Hodo and Ayai Tomisawa in Tokyo;
Writing by Herbert Lash; Editing by James Dalgleish)
