DJI- NEW YORK, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Global share prices and the euro held steady on Wednesday as investors waited to see if central banks in the United States and Europe would take fresh actions to ease the euro-zone debt crisis and rejuvenate the global economy.
U.S. stocks pared early gains after unusual trading that roiled seemingly unrelated shares on the New York Stock Exchange raised concerns.
The Federal Reserve, which concludes its two-day policy meeting later in the day, is likely to show it is ready to act to support a weakening U.S. economy but stop short of aggressive measures for now. (nL2E8J10MO)
The Fed's policy decision will come a day before a key meeting of the European Central Bank. ECB President Mario Draghi heightened speculation of further bank purchases of Italian and Spanish bonds when he said last week that he would do "whatever it takes to preserve the euro."
The risk of disappointment, however, is high. Spanish bond yields could jump again and stocks and the euro could sell off if the ECB does not deliver. Uncertainty ahead of the ECB meeting drove investors to safe-haven German bonds, allowing Berlin to sell five-year debt at a record low cost.
"Everybody is waiting on central bank policy. Right now the equity markets are being held together by easy money, and if we don't get more of it soon we are likely to be disappointed," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago.
"We are going to need a monetary booster shot both from Europe and the U.S. to keep this party going."
But on Wall Street, traders appeared more concerned with unusually volatile trading in a number of shares listed on the NYSE, which resulted in the halt of several stocks that appear to be unrelated.
"I think that has disrupted all the normal activities. Stocks are moving all over the place, they are weird, they are trading like millions of shares, 100 shares at a time, so something went haywire somewhere," said Stephen Massocca, managing director at Wedbush Morgan in San Francisco.
The trading sparked unusual activity in stocks such as Molycorp MCP.N, which traded more than 5.7 million shares in the first 45 minutes of trading. The stock usually averages about 2.65 million shares daily, and it was one of the stocks halted due to excessive volatility.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was up 43.29 points, or 0.33 percent, at 13,051.97. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX was up 4.23 points, or 0.31 percent, at 1,383.55. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC was up 4.26 points, or 0.14 percent, at 2,943.78.
Investors shrugged off economic data on the U.S. labor market and manufacturing activity worldwide.
The U.S. private sector added 163,000 new jobs in July, topping economists' expectations of 120,000 new jobs. The report from payrolls processor ADP came two days ahead of Friday's more important government monthly, non-farm payrolls report. (nEAPA10EH0)
Also on Wednesday, surveys showed U.S. and euro zone factory activity struggled again in July while Chinese manufacturing fell to an eight-month low, as economies around the world showed signs of slowing.
"The manufacturing numbers are pretty dismal. There's really no good way to read them," said Omer Esiner, chief market analyst at Commonwealth Foreign Exchange in Washington. "I think they bolster the case for more Federal Reserve action, and globally, the argument is pretty much the same."
The malaise was worst in the 17-country euro zone, where output plummeted and the manufacturing sector contracted for an 11th straight month in July as a downturn that began in smaller countries continued to spread into core economies.
The euro EUR= slipped 0.1 percent to $1.2297.
Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann said in an interview published on the bank's website that governments overestimated the central bank's capacities and placed too many demands on it. He did not spell out whether he was referring to the Bundesbank or the ECB, though he was talking about the euro zone.
"On the ECB, the uncertainty is very high," said Jens Nordvig, global head of FX strategy at Nomura Securities in New York. "Some additional commitment to support sovereign bond markets is highly likely, but how firm and how conditional this commitment will be is far from clear."
In government debt trading, the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was down 11/32 in price, with the yield at 1.5052 percent US10YT=RR
NYMEX- NEW YORK, Aug 1 (Reuters) - U.S. crude futures rose Wednesday after the government reported a surprisingly large drop in crude oil inventories, but pared gains late in the session after a Federal Reserve policy statement offered no new monetary stimulus.
U.S. crude stocks fell 6.52 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said in a weekly report, a much bigger drop than expected.
CBOT SOYBEAN- Soybean futures on the Chicago Board of Trade fell for a second day on profit-taking and forecasts for much-needed rain in the U.S. Midwest next week, traders said, although the market pared losses toward the closing bell.
* The thinly traded August soybean SQ2 and soymeal SMQ2 contracts, which are in delivery, posted the biggest declines on profit-taking, spread liquidation and weakening cash markets.
• Rain is forecast for next week in western portions of the drought-stressed U.S. Midwest but midday updates indicated lighter quantities than originally expected, an agricultural meteorologist said. (nL2E8J14DR)
• CBOT reported no deliveries against August for soybeans or soymeal, while soyoil deliveries totaled 2,656 contracts.
• CIF soybean basis bids at the U.S. Gulf steadied after falling sharply over the past three days. Demand from domestic processors and from exporters was minimal. (nL2E8J17QC)
• CBOT November soybeans SX2 rallied late to close above the 10-day moving average near $16.22, after trading below it for most of the open-outcry session. The nine-day relative strength index for the contract ended at 60, in technically neutral territory.
FCPO- SINGAPORE, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Malaysian crude palm oil ended lower on Wednesday, as market caution and expectations of higher stocks in No.2 producer Malaysia trumped lingering weather fears in the U.S. Midwest.
The U.S. soy-growing region received little relief from the persistent dryness, with the damage being reflected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's downgrade of the soybean crop condition by 2 percentage points from the previous week. (nL2E8IU493)
But cautious sentiment dominated ahead of the European Central Bank's Thursday meeting and as markets waited to see if there is any fresh monetary stimulus from the U.S. Federal Reserve at the end of its two-day meeting later on Wednesday. MKTS/GLOB
Palm oil traders were also looking for further clues to Malaysia's July stock levels after exports showed some signs of slowing.
"A few months back, stocks were above 2 million tonnes and last month stocks were surprisingly a little weak, so this month stock levels should pull up a little bit," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.
The benchmark October palm oil futures FCPOc3 on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange lost 1.2 percent to close at 2,945 ringgit ($946) per tonne.
Traded volumes picked up to 27,269 lots of 25 tonnes each, compared to the usual 25,000 lots after a quiet morning trading session.
Malaysian palm oil exports fell from a month ago as festival demand eased. Cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services reported a decline of 15 percent and another cargo surveyor, Societe Generale de Surveillance, reported a steeper drop of 19 percent. PALM/ITS PALM/SGS
Slower exports could ease pressure on tightening stocks in Malaysia, which fell to a 14-month low in June.
Traders are also looking out for the possibility of El Nino returning to Southeast Asia as the adverse weather condition could hurt production for top producers Malaysia and Indonesia. (nL4E8J10RX)
Major vegetable oil importer India has set a new base import price on refined palmolein at $1,053 per tonne, the government said in a statement on Wednesday, making imports of the refined palm oil costlier in a bid to protect domestic refiners from cheap Indonesian exports. (nL4E8J12BF)
In related news, global commodities trading giant Cargill Inc said on Tuesday a group of employees at its vegetable oils trading desk in Singapore had left the company but daily business operations remained unaffected. (nL2E8IVD2R)
REGIONAL EQUITY- BANGKOK, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Most Southeast Asian stock markets were nearly flat to lower on Wednesday as investors cashed in on recent gains in the region, cautious ahead of U.S. Federal Reserve's policy decision and the European Central Bank's meeting.
Jakarta's Composite Index .JKSE fell 0.3 percent, with Bank Rakyat BBRI.JK down 0.7 percent after Tuesday's 2.9 percent gain. The Philippine index .PSI was down 0.2 percent, reversing a 1.9 percent gain over the past two sessions.
Bucking the trend, Singapore's Straits Times Index .FTSTI finished up 0.5 percent at 3,051.08, the highest close in nearly a year, building on a 5.5 percent climb in July, the region's best performer.
