GLOBAL MARKETS-Oil down as Saudi output rebound seen soon; stocks weak as Fed meets

* Oil drops as Saudi output seen rebounding soon

* Treasury yields edge down ahead of Fed policy decision

* Wall Street opens slightly weaker; dollar drifts lower

(Updates throughout with open of U.S. markets, changes

dateline; previous LONDON)

By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed

NEW YORK, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Oil prices dropped sharply on

Tuesday after a Reuters report said Saudi Arabia's crude

production could be fully back on line within weeks, quicker

than initially thought following weekend attacks that halved the

kingdom's output.

Stocks inched lower and U.S. Treasury yields slipped ahead

of an expected interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve at the

conclusion of its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday.

Oil prices retreated on Tuesday after a massive jump the day

before, but the market remained on tenterhooks over the threat

of retaliation for attacks on Saudi Arabian crude oil facilities

on Saturday. "We need a proper damage assessment, we need to see a

recovery plan. Before that, we don't really know how much oil

will be offline for how long and that's the basic question

people having been posing since Saturday," said Samuel Ciszuk,

founding partner at Stockholm-based ELS Analysis.

Prices slipped sharply after Reuters reported a top Saudi

Arabian source said Saudi oil output is expected to be back

online fully in the next two to three weeks. U.S. crude CLc1 fell 5.47% to $59.46 per barrel and Brent

LCOc1 was last at $64.92, down 5.94% on the day.

MSCI's All-Country World Index .MIWD00000PUS , which tracks

shares across 47 countries, was down 0.1% on the day.

On Wall Street, stocks opened slightly weaker as investors

shunned big bets ahead of the Fed's policy decision.

"It's just typical trading on the vigil of a Fed meeting,"

said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital

Securities in New York.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI fell 40.62 points,

or 0.15%, to 27,036.2, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.19 points, or

0.01%, to 2,997.77 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 8.96

points, or 0.11%, to 8,144.58.

With the retreat in oil prices, shares of energy companies,

which had risen hard on Monday, gave up a lot of the gains.

European shares slipped slightly even as investors sought

refuge in oil stocks and defensive sectors in response to

heightened volatility after the attacks in Saudi Arabia.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX lost 0.12%.

U.S. Treasury yields edged lower as traders bided their time

before the Fed decision on rates. While a rate cut is seen as near-certain this week, there

are deep disagreements among Fed policymakers on whether a

reduction in borrowing costs now or further decreases are

warranted. Investors will focus on the so-called "dot plot,"

which shows where policymakers expect rates to be in the future.

"The dot plot will be interesting. I would expect to see a

lot more dispersion between all the dots going forward

especially as we know there are a lot of contrasting views at

the Fed right now," said Justin Lederer, an interest rate

strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald in New York.

Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR were last up 7/32 in

price to yield 1.8205%, down from 1.843% on Monday.

Investors were also watching an overnight spike in dollar

funding costs after the overnight rate, or the cost for banks

and Wall Street dealers to borrow dollars USONRP= , surged to

10% on Tuesday, the highest since at least January 2003,

according to Refinitiv data. In currency markets, the dollar slipped in choppy trading,

moving within narrow ranges. With investors adopting a wait-and-see approach ahead of the

Fed meeting, gold prices were steady. Spot gold XAU= was 0.35%

higher at $1,503.113 per ounce.

Graphic: World FX rates in 2019 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh

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