(Updates after morning European trading, adds comments)

*

European shares pare early decline

*

Eyes on Jackson Hole symposium, Powell's speech

*

Minutes of Fed's July meeting due on Wednesday

*

Trump's growing influence over tech sector raises concerns

By Rae Wee and Jaspreet Kalra

SINGAPORE, Aug 20 (Reuters) - European shares steadied

on Wednesday, as a tech-led selloff on Wall Street that has

rippled through equity markets eased, while currency and rates

traders honed in on a key meeting of central bankers later this

week.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was nearly flat

after declining by as much as 0.4% earlier in the day, pressured

by weakness in tech and defence sector stocks.

That early weakness followed a fall in Asian markets, where

tech-heavy indexes were the biggest losers after the NASDAQ

composite index dropped nearly 1.5% on Tuesday.

Futures on the tech-heavy NASDAQ were just 0.2% lower on

Wednesday, however, suggesting a calmer open ahead.

While there was no major trigger for the selloff in tech

stocks, analysts pointed to a confluence of factors, including

concerns over high valuations, a general risk-off mood and U.S.

President Donald Trump's growing influence over the sector.

"I think we were priced for perfection in the U.S. and there

was a quite a lot of complacency in markets, so some summer

volatility should have been expected," said Ben Laidler, head of

equity strategy at BRADESCO BBI.

Trump's influence on the U.S. tech-sector has also been in

focus for investors. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is

looking into the government taking equity stakes in Intel ( INTC ) as

well as other chip companies, two sources told Reuters.

While the individual developments may be brushed aside by

markets, they fall into the broader bucket of concerns over the

institutional framework in the United States, Laidler said.

The potential move comes on the back of other unusual deals

Washington has recently struck with U.S. companies, including

allowing AI chip giant Nvidia ( NVDA ) to sell its H20 chips to

China in exchange for the U.S. government receiving 15% of the

revenue from those sales.

In commodities, Brent crude futures were last up

1.1% at $66.55 a barrel as investors awaited the next steps in

talks to end Russia's war on Ukraine, with uncertainty over

whether oil sanctions might be eased or tightened.

While a meeting between Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr

Zelenskiy and a group of European allies concluded without much

fanfare, Trump said the United States would help guarantee

Ukraine's security in any deal to end Russia's war there.

"The U.S. is not categorically underwriting anything, any

security for Ukraine, even if they're open to provide some,

because we don't know the conditions under which they will. So

there's quite a bit of risk left out there," said Vishnu

Varathan, head of macro research for Asia ex-Japan at Mizuho.

Elsewhere, Sweden's central bank kept its key interest rate

on hold as expected on Wednesday, while the Reserve Bank of New

Zealand cut policy rates to a three-year low and signalled

further easing, sending the kiwi down by over 1%.

AWAITING JACKSON HOLE

The focus is now on the Kansas City Federal Reserve's August

21-23 Jackson Hole symposium, where Fed Chair Jerome Powell is

due to speak on the economic outlook and the central bank's

policy framework on Friday.

Powell's remarks on the near-term outlook for rates will be

keenly watched as traders are almost fully pricing in a rate cut

next month.

The minutes of the Fed's July policy meeting are due later

on Wednesday, but are unlikely to spur meaningful market

reactions as they pre-date weak U.S. labour market data that

spurred a firming of rate cut expectations.

The dollar was steady against the euro at $1.1646.

Sterling was flat at $1.3498 after rising slightly in

immediate reaction to data that showed UK inflation its highest

in 18 months in July.

The fact this was not even worse meant under-fire British

government bonds rallied on the news, with the benchmark 10-year

gilt yield down 5 basis points at 4.69%.

The 10-year Treasury yield was marginally lower at 4.29%.

"We expect the dollar to depreciate largely because US

economic performance no longer supports the currency's high

valuation, and we think the softening labor market is providing

late-summer support to that view," analysts at Goldman Sachs

said in a note.

Elsewhere, spot gold rose 0.3% to $3,326.89 an ounce.

(Additional reporting by Rae Wee. Editing by Sonali Paul and

Mark Potter)