Stock Indexes Steady, Oil Rises as Wary Investors Eye Middle East Hostilities

GLOBAL MARKET - NEW YORK/ LONDON. MSCI's global equities index was down slightly on Wednesday while the dollar rose and oil prices pared earlier gains, as investors digested U.S. economic data and anxiously awaited Israel's response to Iran's missile attack the previous day.

Oil prices rose on worries that further escalation in the Middle East could threaten oil supplies from the world's top producing region, but gains were limited by a large build in U.S. crude inventories.

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