* U.S. dollar edges down on Friday but up for the week
* Wall Street zigzags, European shares edge lower
* Crude oil edges up on strong German sentiment data
* U.S. Treasuries mixed, 10-year drops, 30-year rises
(Updates with New York close, adds comment, byline)
By Daniel Bases and Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, Oct 22 (Reuters) - World stocks and the U.S.
dollar see-sawed on Friday as finance and central bank chiefs
from the Group of 20 leading economies struggled to manage
currency and trade imbalances, leaving investors to navigate
choppy markets
Uncertainty about the outcome of the G20 meeting, who are
seeking a common path to manage global trade, prompted some
investors to moderate their dollar-selling until the gathering
in South Korea ends this weekend.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rose while the
Dow fell. European shares closed slightly off six-month highs
touched in the previous session.
The greenback, while ending the day slightly lower, did
snap a five-week losing streak against major currencies.
The United States struggled on Friday to win backing for a
proposal to set limits on external imbalances as a way of
pressing countries with surpluses such as China to let their
exchange rates rise. For details see: []
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner proposed limiting
surpluses and deficits on the current account -- the broadest
measure of trade in goods and services -- to 4 percent of gross
domestic product, according to Japan's finance minister.
But the plan met with a cool reception, and big exporting
countries, including Germany, that habitually run chunky trade
surpluses led the opposition. []
Many emerging market policy-makers blame lax U.S. policies
for the global financial crisis, and they fear Washington is
prepared to debase the dollar by flooding the banking system
with cash to try to breathe life into a sluggish U.S. economy.
"Once we get past the G20 event, we're going to have that
renewed focus on what's going on with the U.S. quantitative
easing and another down leg in the U.S. dollar," said David
Watt, senior currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets in
Toronto.
"There's the possibility of a renewed upswing in the euro,"
said Watt.
Traders said large bets against the U.S. currency pointed
to a correction. But they noted they would not rule out another
lurch lower for the dollar, which has fallen about 7 percent
against currencies over the past month.
The dollar's early strength faded by the end of the day,
slipping 0.06 percent against a basket of major trading-partner
currencies <.DXY> but it is up 0.52 percent this week, its
first weekly gain since mid-September.
The euro <EUR=> rose 0.22 percent to $1.3950, and against
the Japanese yen, the dollar <JPY=> was flat at 81.35.
BAIDU JUMPS, L'OREAL LAGS
On Wall Street, technology shares edged higher as results
from Baidu Inc <BIDU.O> and SanDisk <SNDK.O> bolstered the
sector's outlook, while the broader market was little changed.
[]
The Dow Jones industrial average <> fell 14.01 points,
or 0.13 percent, to end at 11,132.56. But the Standard & Poor's
500 Index <.SPX> rose 2.82 points, or 0.24 percent, to
1,183.08. The Nasdaq Composite Index <> gained 19.72
points, or 0.80 percent, to close at 2,479.39.
While the Dow fell on Friday, all three indexes closed
higher for a third straight week.
European shares closed down, with the FTSEurofirst 300
<> index of top European shares falling 0.35 percent to
end at 1,089.45 points.
Consumer-related stocks, which had surged earlier in the
week, were among the biggest losers. LVMH <LVMH.PA> lost 0.8
percent and L'Oreal <OREP.PA> surrendered 1.9 percent.
"Earnings have been pretty good and a lot of stocks rose
this week on the back of this, so people are using the excuse
of currency tensions with the G20 meeting to cash in profits,"
said David Thebault, head of quantitative sales trading, at
Global Equities, in Paris.
The MSCI all-country world index of stocks <.MIWD00000PUS>
slipped 0.15 percent.
Japan's Nikkei share average rose 0.54 percent to close at
9,426.71 in thin trade <>, while the MSCI Asia Pacific
ex-Japan index edged up 0.09 percent<.MIAPJ0000PUS>.
OIL, 30-YEAR BOND AND GOLD ADVANCE
Oil received a lift on news that German business sentiment
reached its strongest in 3-1/2 years in October, according to
the Munich-based Ifo think tank's business climate index, which
indicates growth levels six months ahead. []
U.S. crude futures <CLc1> rose $1.13, or 1.4 percent, to
settle at $81.69 a barrel.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note <US10YT=RR> fell
4/32, its yield edging up to 2.56 percent.
But the 30-year bond rallied 16/32, pulling the yield down
to 3.93 percent. []
Gold prices steadied, paring most losses that took them to
2-1/2 week lows earlier in the session.
Spot gold prices <XAU=> rose $3.40 to $1,327.90 an ounce.
(Reporting by Edward Krudy, Rodrigo Campos, Steven C. Johnson
and Richard Leong in New York and Kirsten Donovan, Atul
Prakash, Emma Farge and Jan Harvey in London, Blaise Robinson
in Paris; Writing by Herbert Lash; Editing by Jan Paschal)
