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Shares mostly subdued after strong month, quarter

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Dollar holds gains ahead of raft of Fed speakers later

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Switzerland holds interest rates at zero

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Oil eases back after 2% jump

By Marc Jones

LONDON, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Global shares stalled on

Thursday as bond yields inched higher ahead of a raft of

appearances from Federal Reserve officials that traders hope

will offer greater clarity on how far and fast U.S. interest

rates will drop.

At least seven Fed officials are due to speak later, while

there is also a reading of U.S. second-quarter GDP and weekly

jobless claims ahead of what will be even more closely watched

inflation data on Friday.

Europe's early moves saw the STOXX 600 tick 0.3%

lower as the region's main bourses took a break from a worldwide

rally that has seen global stocks score nine record highs

already this month.

Oil prices were starting to ease back too, having surged

over 2% on Wednesday after a surprise drop in U.S. crude

inventories and amid ongoing questions around Iraq, Venezuela

and Russian supply.

Charles Schwab's UK Managing Director Richard Flynn said

investors have also had a warning shot this week about equity

market valuations from the head of the Fed Jerome Powell, who

described them "fairly highly valued".

"For retail investors there are a few more reasons to be

concerned about equities at the moment than be confident," Flynn

said, adding that the sharp rise in share prices in recent years

has left many with risk profiles more exposed than normal.

Wall Street futures were broadly flat ahead of

the queue of Fed speakers later, while safe-haven gold, which

tends to thrive in a low-interest-rate environment, was

shuffling up toward Tuesday's record high of $3,790 an ounce.

YEN WOBBLE

In foreign exchange markets, the dollar index

held onto overnight gains at 97.82. That left yen bulls in a

spot of bother after some piled into long yen positions after

the Bank of Japan's hawkish hold on policy last week.

"A lot of guys, whether they're macro or discretionary, have

been on the wrong foot looking for dollar/yen to trade lower and

that dollar/yen move would certainly be causing some concerns,"

said Tony Sycamore, an analyst at IG.

That spilled into yen crosses, with the Swiss franc hitting

an all-time high on the yen and the euro hovering at

over a one-year peak at 174.66, just below a record

top of 175.90.

The Swiss National Bank also played its part as it held its

interest rates at zero on Thursday in its first pause since late

2023.

SNB Chairman Martin Schlegel has repeatedly said there are

high hurdles to reintroducing a negative interest rate, a policy

which sparked concerns from savers and pension funds when used

from December 2014 to September 2022.

However, some analysts believe it will have to go lower in

due course.

"We do not think that this is the end of the rate-cutting

cycle," said Adrian Prettejohn, Europe economist at Capital

Economics, explaining that Swiss inflation was likely to average

around zero next year.

ASIA TAKES A BREATHER

Asian shares had also taken a breather overnight after a

strong rally in many of the major markets there this year.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan

slipped 0.1%, having rallied over 5% for the

month and 9% for the quarter. Japan's Nikkei rose 0.2%,

after jumping 7% for the month and 13% for the quarter.

Chinese shares continue to outperform however, with blue

chips 0.7% higher and Hong Kong's Hang Seng

advanced 0.2%. Chinese tech shares are up for the

eighth straight week, the longest winning streak on record on AI

optimism.

The Treasuries market see-sawed as markets absorbed a huge

amount of higher corporate and government bond supply. The

benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury note yield was

flat at 4.1408%, having risen 3 basis points overnight,

reversing Monday's fall.

The Treasury Department will also auction $44 billion in

seven-year notes later, following auctions of

five-year and two-year notes earlier in the week.

(Additional reporting by Stella Qiu in Sydney; Editing by Joe

Bavier)