A global stocks index was little changed yesterday 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.

Alcoa Inc reported results after Wall Street closed Tuesday, beating analysts’ expectations and lifting the aluminum maker’s stock more than three per cent.

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 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 per cent, to 16,942.01, the S&P 500 gained 4.6 points or 0.23 per cent, to 1,968.31 and the Nasdaq Composite added 17.52 points or 0.4 per cent, to 4,408.98.

The FTSEuroFirst 300 index of leading European shares was flat on the day and MSCI’s global gauge of stocks ticked up less than 0.1 per cent.

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 US Energy Information Administration showed US crude stockpile 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 per cent to $108.32 and US crude lost 1.2 per cent, the most since late May, to $102.18.

The US dollar edged 0.1 per cent lower against a basket of currencies and the euro strengthened 0.1 per cent versus the greenback.

Regarding the Fed minutes, any discussion by Fed members about a recent uptick in US consumer prices will be key after Fed Chair Janet Yellen downplayed heating inflation data after the June meeting as being “noisy.”

“The characterisation 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. US 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 uro.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield was up slightly at 2.579 per cent 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 per cent.

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