* 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 close of European markets)
By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, Oct 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar rose on a short-covering bounce on Tuesday, pushing crude oil, gold and other commodities lower as investors awaited fresh indications 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 new Fed purchases of bonds -- known as 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 pullback in global equity markets and commodities added fuel to the dollar's rebound. For details see: [ID:nLDE69B1DJ]
The euro later trimmed losses against the dollar after Axel Weber, a member of the European Central Bank Governing Council, said the ECB's government bond-buying program has not worked and should be scrapped. [ID:nN12182859]
The euro
"Investors are anxious ahead of the Federal Reserve minutes," said Heino Ruland, strategist at Ruland Research in Frankfurt. "More details of quantitative easing could change things and push equities higher." [ID:nLDE69B1YJ]
MSCI's all-country world equity index <.MIWD00000PUS> fell 0.5 percent and its emerging market index <.MSCIEF> slid 0.8 percent. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index closed down about 0.3 percent at 1,071.26.
European shares pared losses in early afternoon trade after data showed U.S. chain-store sales rose last week, but oil stocks pulled down the overall index on falling crude prices.
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, while gold eased on the dollar's bounce. [ID:nSGE69B07B] [ID:nLDE69B0U7]
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
POLISHING THE APPLE
On Wall Street, benchmark indexes were mixed after Barclays
raised its price target on Apple Inc
Lee Ainslie of hedge fund Maverick Capital said technology stocks are priced at the cheapest in 20 years. [ID:nWEN1037]
At 12:55 p.m., the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was down 39.29 points, or 0.36 percent, at 10,971.05.The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was down 2.18 points, or 0.19 percent, at 1,163.14. But the Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was up 3.76 points, or 0.16 percent, at 2,406.09.
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, said Peter Kenny, managing director of Knight Equity Markets in Jersey City, New Jersey.
"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," Kenny said.
BONDS AND DOLLAR EDGE HIGHER
Prices in European and U.S. government bonds 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 bonds rose as speculation over the size and timing of expected U.S. monetary easing grew and the two-year U.S. Treasury yield hit a record low. [ID:nLDE69B1M5]
The 2-year U.S. Treasury note
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note
The dollar rose against a basket of major currencies, with the U.S. Dollar Index <.DXY> up 0.10 percent at 77.521.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar
"What we've seen is the dollar is still a bit stronger, not only against the euro but also against a basket of currencies," said Andrey Kryuchenkov of VTB Capital. [ID:nSGE69B07B]
A stronger dollar renders dollar-denominated commodities more expensive for non-dollar buyers.
Spot gold
Copper, a proxy for China's growth outlook, took back early losses to trade up, supported by expected positive trade data from China and continued supply concerns. [ID:nLDE69B0OF]
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei <.N225> closed down 2.1 percent at 9,388.64, while Asian stocks were down 1.3 percent, according to the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index <.MIAPJ0000PUS>. (Reporting by Wanfeng Zhou, Emily Flitter in New York; Tamawa Desai, Kirsten Donovan, Harpreet Bhal, George Matlock, Zaida Espana, Joe Brock and Jan Harvey in London; Writing by Herbert Lash; Editing by Jan Paschal)