GLOBAL-MARKETS-Stocks slip from highs; investors wait on Fed

(Updates to U.S. stock market close)
By Matt Scuffham
NEW YORK, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Global stocks slipped from
record levels on Tuesday, with investors cautious as the Federal
Reserve kicked off its two-day policy meeting and U.S. lawmakers
continued to debate a new stimulus plan.
Those concerns overshadowed impressive results from a slew
of companies, including from General Electric GE.N and Johnson
& Johnson JNJ.N , which had earlier pushed the S&P 500 to a
record high.
"Investors don't expect the Fed to give any reason to think
they are getting closer to talking about when they will consider
scaling back QE, but nervousness is brewing on Wall Street,"
said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA in New York.
Wall Street's main indexes closed lower.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 22.96 points,
or 0.07%, to 30,937.04, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 5.74 points, or
0.15%, to 3,849.62 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 9.93
points, or 0.07%, to 13,626.07.
The MSCI world equity index .MIWD00000PUS , which tracks
shares in 49 nations, fell 1.99 points or 0.3%, to 666.09.
After a "buy everything" rally over several months supported
by money-printing pandemic stimulus packages, near-zero interest
rates and the start of COVID-19 vaccination programs, some
investors are worried markets may be near "bubble" territory.
They point to rocketing prices of assets such as bitcoin or
the soaring stock of short-squeezed videogame retailer GameStop
GME.N . "There is room for some consolidation," said Francois
Savary, chief investment officer at Swiss wealth manager Prime
Partners.
Uncertainty over the timing and size of fiscal stimulus also
tempered sentiment.
Disagreements have meant months of indecision in the United
States, where new coronavirus cases have been above 175,000 a
day and millions of people are out of work.
Democrats in the U.S. Senate will act alone to approve a
fresh round of stimulus if Republicans do not support the
measure, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. U.S. Treasury yields were narrowly mixed in choppy trading,
after hitting three-week lows on the long end of the curve, as
investors remained cautious about the stimulus and the slow
global roll-out of coronavirus vaccines.
Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last rose 2/32 in price
to yield 1.0347%.
The U.S. dollar edged lower across the board as traders
showed a preference for riskier currencies.
The dollar index =USD fell 0.2%, with the euro EUR= up
0.21% to $1.2162.
European stocks advanced, shrugging off political upheaval
in Italy, as strong earnings from wealth manager UBS and auto
parts maker Autoliv added to a string of upbeat corporate
updates.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX closed up 0.6%,
with a rally in automakers, industrial companies and SAP
SAPG.DE helping the German DAX .GDAXI outperform.
Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 added 0.64%,
at 1,573.47.
The IMF raised its forecast for global economic growth in
2021 and said the coronavirus-triggered downturn in 2020 would
be nearly a full percentage point less severe than expected.
Italy's FTSE MIB .FTMIB rose 1.2% after Prime Minister
Giuseppe Conte handed in his resignation to the head of state,
hoping he would be given an opportunity to put together a new
coalition and rebuild his parliamentary majority.1.2163
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS fell 11.47 points or 1.58% in Asia overnight.
South Korea .KS11 and Hong Kong HIS topped losers, each
falling more than 2%. The sell-off also caused Japanese stocks
.N225 to slip 1% and Chinese blue-chips .CSI300 to tumble
2%, their biggest one-day loss since Sept. 9.
All had touched milestone highs earlier this month.
Gold prices edged lower. Spot gold XAU= dropped 0.2% to
$1,850.63 an ounce. U.S. gold futures GCv1 settled down 0.2%
at $1,850.90.
U.S. crude oil futures CLc1 settled at $52.61 a barrel,
down 16 cents or 0.30%. Brent crude futures LCOc1 settled at
$55.91 a barrel, up 3 cents or 0.05%.

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