* Dollar short-covering lifts currency before FOMC minutes
* Gold slides, oil slips below $82 on stronger dollar
* U.S. Treasury prices rise ahead of auction, Fed minutes
* Global stocks ease as investors weigh recent big gains (Adds open of U.S. markets; changes dateline; previous LONDON)
By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, Oct 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar gained on a short-covering bounce on Tuesday, causing crude oil, gold and other commodities to slip as investors awaited the latest indication on further monetary easing from the Federal Reserve.
Traders covered positions in currency markets as they scaled back some of their more aggressive expectations of fresh quantitative easing before the release of minutes from the Sept. 21 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee.
The dollar rose against the euro and a basket of major currencies while a pull-back in global equity markets and commodities added fuel to the dollar's bounce. For details see: [ID:nLDE69B1DJ]
The euro
"On the macro level what is happening to the dollar is 100 percent predictable. There is a direct reverse correlation between the dollar and the amount of dollars being printed," said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Equity Markets in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Gold eased and copper dipped on the dollar's bounce-back, while oil slid for a second day, falling below $82 a barrel after Saudi Arabia signaled the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries would maintain current production levels. [ID:nLDE69B0U7] [ID:nLDE69B0OF] [ID:nSGE69B07B]
Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said on Monday he was happy with the oil market as he arrived in Vienna for the first OPEC meeting in seven months set for Thursday. [ID:nLDE69A22W]
U.S. crude for November
Both MSCI's all-country world equity index <.MIWD00000PUS> and its emerging market index <.MSCIEF> fell about 1 percent each, while the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index was down about 0.7 percent.
European shares pared losses in early afternoon trade after data showed U.S. chain store sales rose last week, although caution remained ahead of the release of FOMC minutes later in the day. [ID:nLDE69B1D3]
In stock trading, benchmark indexes were down. The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 54.57 points, or 0.50 percent, to 10,955.77. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was down 4.60 points, or 0.39 percent, at 1,160.72. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was down 5.20 points, or 0.22 percent, at 2,397.13.
After an 8.8 percent run-up in the S&P 500 in September, followed by a 2.1 percent rise so far in October, investors and traders were reassessing the market, Kenny said.
"We've gotten a little ahead of ourselves, and the markets are primed for a reset. I'm not talking about a wholesale sell-off, but I am talking about a reset closer to sound valuations," he said.
Prices in the U.S. Treasury market mostly rose as follow-through from a weak employment report on Friday combined with a global pullback in stocks. [ID:nN12164527]
But the bond market's two main catalysts were still ahead: the release of the FOMC minutes and the auction of $32 billion worth of three-year Treasury notes.
German government bond yields fell as speculation over the magnitude and timing of expected U.S. monetary easing grew and the two-year U.S. Treasury yield hit a record low. [ID:nLDE69B1B8]
The 2-year U.S. Treasury note
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note
Commodities slipped, with the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index <.CRB> down 0.78 point, or 0.26 percent, at 295.59
Spot gold
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei <.N225> closed down 2.1 percent, while Asian stocks were down 1.3 percent, according to the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index <.MIAPJ0000PUS>. (Reporting by Emily Flitter in New York; Tamawa Desai, Harpreet Bhal, George Matlock, Zaida Espana, Joe Brock and Jan Harvey in London; Writing by Herbert Lash; Editing by Dan Grebler)