Global Markets - Stocks drift with eyes on earnings; oil ticks up

By Rodrigo Campos

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude prices added to last week's gains Monday on bets of a slowdown in U.S. oil production, while equities in major world markets drifted ahead of the start of the quarterly earnings season on Wall Street.

U.S. stocks were little changed ahead of the release of company results. Market participants will particularly be attuned to how much of an impact a strengthening dollar and falling oil prices have had on Corporate America in the first quarter.

"We had a big move last week and we're heading into earnings season and we've had a few warning signs last week from a couple of companies where the impact of foreign exchange is going to be greater than what was previously thought," said Brian Fenske, head of sales and trading at ITG in New York.

The euro slipped to a four-week low on a renewed focus on the monetary policy differential between the United States and other major economies, with the Federal Reserve on track to raise U.S. interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. The Australian dollar slumped to a nearly six-year low versus the greenback, weighed by weak Chinese data.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 8.31 points, or 0.05 percent, to 18,065.96, the S&P 500 gained 0.1 points, or 0 percent, to 2,102.16 and the Nasdaq Composite added 15.07 points, or 0.3 percent, to 5,011.05.

A measure of equities in major markets was also flat and the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares ended up 0.1 percent, holding on to last week's 3.7 percent jump.

Chinese exports fell 15 percent year-on-year in March, confounding expectations for a 12 percent rise, while imports shrank at their fastest rate since May 2009.

Chinese shares hit seven-year highs on expectation of further stimulus measures after the surprisingly weak data.

"We continue to expect more monetary easing for a variety of reasons, and the trade data offers further support for this," Oliver Barron, analyst at China-focused investment bank NSBO said in a note to clients.

DATA HURTS CURRENCIES

The weak Chinese data also raised concerns over a possible global slowdown and hurt exporters of natural resources. The Australian dollar fell 1.3 percent while the New Zealand dollar fell 1.2 percent.

As the U.S. job market improves, the risk of an unexpected setback derailing the economic recovery once the Federal Reserve raises rates is receding, San Francisco Fed President John Williams told Reuters.

The dollar's strength against the euro was a "spillover" from last week's commentary from the Fed, said Alan Ruskin, global head of currency strategy at Deutsche Bank in New York.

Recent commentary from Fed officials and minutes from the central bank's March policy meeting suggest a June rate hike is still possible.

The euro was down 0.2 percent at $1.0577, having fallen as low as $1.0519. The dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, rose 0.1 percent. The dollar was flat against the yen .

Crude oil prices rose despite a stronger greenback as traders bet a slowdown in U.S. drilling would contribute to higher prices. Brent crude rose 0.7 percent to $58.25 per barrel and U.S. crude added 0.9 percent to $52.18.

Prices had briefly turned negative earlier as a global supply glut keeps traders anxious.

Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes were last up 3/32 in price to yield 1.9421 percent, down from 1.953 percent late on Friday.

The stronger dollar and prospects of higher U.S. rates helped push gold lower for a fourth session out of five. It last traded at $1,199.18 an ounce, down 0.7 percent.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by James Dalgleish and Bernadette Baum)