Global stocks mixed, investors hope for comforting Fed message

By Yasmeen Abutaleb

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global equity markets were mixed on Wednesday ahead of a policy statement in which the Federal Reserve is widely expected to announce the end of its stimulus program but say it will wait to raise interest rates due to concerns about economic growth.

The Fed is likely to say it will no longer add to its holdings of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities, effectively ending a program that at its peak pumped $85 billion a month into the financial system to hold interest rates down and boost the flagging economy.

Currency and fixed income markets were also subdued ahead of the Fed statement, as the dollar and major government bond yields were little changed.

Major indexes on Wall Street turned negative after edging higher at the open.

"There's unease about what (the Fed) is going to say or do," said Andrew Slimmon, senior portfolio manager at Global Investment Solutions of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management in Chicago, who manages $4.2 billion in global equities strategies.

"The focus is back to the Fed and that might be why the market is a little weaker."

MSCI's index of equities in 45 countries rose 0.2 percent and the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading companies closed up 0.1 percent.

Germany's biggest lender, Deutsche Bank,announced a third-quarter net loss on heavy legal costs. Shares fell 2.4 percent.

Better-than-expected U.S. corporate earnings have helped ease global growth concerns. With 245 companies in the S&P 500 having reported third-quarter earnings so far, 73.5 percent have beat analyst expectations, according to Thomson Reuters. Over the past four quarters, 67 percent of companies have beat estimates.

In Europe about a third of companies listed on the STOXX Europe 600 benchmark have reported results so far, with 66 percent beating profit forecasts, Thomson Reuters data show.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 22.62 points, or 0.13 percent, to 16,983.13, the S&P 500 lost 4 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,981.05 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 27.16 points, or 0.59 percent, to 4,537.14.

The dollar fell against the euro to $1.2755, down 0.2 percent, and fell against a basket of major currencies by 0.15 percent.

The 10-year Treasury notes fell 11/32 in price to yield 2.3210 percent.

The German Bund yield fell to 0.895 percent after Germany sold 10-year bonds at auction on Wednesday but bids failed to match the amount on offer, making it the ninth technically "failed" bond auction this year.

Oil traded higher as Brent crude rose 1.6 percent to $87.38 a barrel and U.S. crude rose 1.3 percent to $82.49.

(Additional reporting by Jamie McGeever in London; Editing by James Dalgleish and Nick Zieminski)