GLOBAL MARKETS-Steady stocks eye central banks; crude falls

* Brent at 1-month low as Libyan supply returns; WTI falls

the most since late May

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

* Euro edges up versus dollar

(Updates prices, adds crude oil comment)

By Rodrigo Campos

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

little changed on Wednesday ahead of key central bank news,

while Brent fell as Libyan pumps came back online.

Markets were looking ahead to a speech by European Central

Bank President Mario Draghi, scheduled for 1830 GMT, and minutes

from the most recent Federal Reserve meeting, due at 2 p.m.

(1800 GMT), 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.

Stocks on Wall Street traded slightly higher, lifted by the

good earnings mood, but gains were 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 35.39 points or

0.21 percent, to 16,942.01, the S&P 500 gained 4.6 points

or 0.23 percent, to 1,968.31 and the Nasdaq Composite

added 17.52 points or 0.4 percent, to 4,408.98.

The FTSEuroFirst 300 index of leading European shares was

flat on the day and MSCI (NYSE: MSCI - news) 's global gauge of stocks

ticked up less than 0.1 percent.

Brent crude oil traded at a one-month low below $109 a

barrel after a Libyan oilfield restarted and supply worries

faded, while weekly data from the U.S. Energy Information

Administration showed U.S. crude stockpiles rose and gasoline

demand faltered.

"The gasoline demand drop and Cushing stock rise should have

a little bit of a negative effect on WTI prices," said Gene

McGillian, an analyst at Tradition Energy in Stamford,

Connecticut.

Brent fell 0.6 percent to $108.32 and U.S. crude

lost 1.2 percent, the most since late May, to $102.18.

The U.S. dollar edged 0.1 percent lower against a basket of

currencies and the euro strengthened 0.1 percent versus

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.

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 up

slightly at 2.579 percent with traders setting up for $21

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

briefly slipped to a 14-month low of 1.211 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.

Gold was up 0.2 percent at $1,321.60 an ounce.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos Additional reporting by Ryan

Vlastelica, Karen Brettell, Lorenzo Ligato and Richard Leong;

Editing by James Dalgleish)