GLOBAL MARKETS-Markets little changed ahead of Draghi, Fed minutes

* Alcoa (NYSE: AA - news) 's beat boosts Wall Street stocks

* Euro edges up versus greenback

(Updates prices, changes comments, byline, dateline, previous

LONDON)

By Rodrigo Campos

NEW YORK, July 9 (Reuters) - A global stocks index was

little changed on Wednesday as strong U.S. earnings offset

weaker European industrial data ahead of key central bank news.

Markets were looking ahead to a speech by European Central

Bank President Mario Draghi and minutes from the most recent

Federal Reserve meeting, with special focus on any mention of a

timeline to raise U.S. interest rates and the Fed's take on

strengthening economic data.

Alcoa Inc reported results after Wall Street closed

Tuesday, beating analysts' expectations and lifting the aluminum

maker's stock more than 3 percent.

Wall Street opened higher, lifted by the good earnings mood,

but gains are barely making a dent on losses sustained in the

previous two sessions.

"The market was encouraged by Alcoa, especially since we

were arguably oversold in the very short term," said Steve

Sosnick, equity-risk manager at Timber Hill/Interactive Brokers (NasdaqGS: IBKR - news)

Group in Greenwich, Connecticut.

"However, it's hard to predict big moves ahead of all the

news coming out next week, and there's no reason to suspect we

couldn't pull back further," he said, in reference to the heavy

earnings calendar.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 49.19 points or

0.29 percent, to 16,955.81, the S&P 500 gained 7.42

points or 0.38 percent, to 1,971.13 and the Nasdaq Composite

added 23.24 points or 0.53 percent, to 4,414.70.

The FTSEuroFirst 300 index of leading European shares was

down less than 0.1 percent and MSCI (NYSE: MSCI - news) 's global gauge of

stocks ticked up less than 0.1 percent.

The dollar edged 0.15 percent lower against a basket of

currencies and the euro strengthened 0.2 percent against

the greenback.

Regarding the Fed minutes, any discussion by Fed members

about a recent uptick in U.S. consumer prices will be key after

Fed Chair Janet Yellen downplayed heating inflation data after

the June meeting as being "noisy."

"The characterization by Fed Chair Yellen of the inflation

pop-up as noise really took the wind out of the sails of the

near-term hawks," said Steven Englander, global head of G10

foreign exchange strategy at CitiFX in New York.

Overnight, China said its consumer price index rose 2.3

percent in June from a year earlier, shy of the consensus

forecast of 2.4 percent, and a sign economic activity may be

cooling.

U.S. bond markets were steady ahead of the Fed minutes and

Draghi's appearance in London, where two years ago he delivered

his speech pledging to do "whatever it takes" to save the euro.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield was

unchanged at 2.565 percent with traders setting up for $21

billion in 10-year note supply. The yield on Germany's Bund

slipped to a 14-month low of 1.21 percent.

Upbeat U.S. employment data last week prompted some

economists to predict the Fed would raise interest rates earlier

than previously thought, but yields have since fallen, with

investors cautious about the strength of the recovery.

Brent oil fell 0.5 percent to $108.35 per barrel and

U.S. crude dropped 0.9 percent to $102.49.

Gold was up 0.5 percent at $1,324.70 an ounce.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos Additional reporting by Ryan

Vlastelica, Karen Brettell and Richard Leong; Editing by James

Dalgleish)