* Wall Street dips after four-week S&P 500 rally
* Oil falls on supply glut concerns
* Dollar falls after U.S. housing data (Updates with close of European markets)
By Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Global equity markets edged lower on Monday, pausing after a four-week rally ahead of policy announcements from central banks in the U.S. and Japan later in the week, while the dollar lost ground in the wake of soft U.S. housing data.
Stock markets rallied last week on bets that Japan's already-massive stimulus would be further increased after China cut interest rates last week and the European Central Bank indicated it may add to its asset purchase program in December.
But comments Monday by a key economic adviser to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who said the Bank of Japan did not need to boost its monetary stimulus this week, tamped down those expectations somewhat. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N12Q2T6
The U.S. Federal Reserve, meanwhile, which will issue a policy statement at the conclusion of a two-day meeting on Wednesday, is increasingly expected to hold off its first rate hike in nearly a decade until next year.
U.S. stocks dipped, with the PHLX housing index .HGX down 0.8 percent after the Commerce Department said new U.S. single-family home sales fell to near a one-year low in September after two straight months of gains. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N12Q128
"It is just a little bit of consolidation and people re-evaluating," said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey.
"There is no question that the economic news is mixed, so I don't know if that is telling anyone anything they don't already know."
FOUR-WEEK RALLY
After a gain of more than 7 percent over the past four weeks, MSCI's all-country world index .MIWD00000PUS of the equity performance of 46 countries shed 0.1 percent, while the pan-regional FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index, tracking Europe's 300 largest companies, closed down 0.4 percent.
Shares in European markets were mostly lower, but Germany's DAX .GDAXI managed a modest 0.06 percent gain after a business sentiment survey showed that morale had fallen by less than expected in October. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N12Q1EV
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 9.72 points, or 0.06 percent, to 17,636.98, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 1.96 points, or 0.09 percent, to 2,073.19 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 9.02 points, or 0.18 percent, to 5,040.88.
About 170 companies in the benchmark S&P 500 index are expected to report earnings this week, including Apple Inc AAPL.O on Tuesday.
Thomson Reuters data shows third-quarter earnings are expected to decrease 2.8 percent from a year ago, a slight improvement from the 4.2 percent decline expected at the beginning of the month.
The dollar .DXY fell from a 2-1/2 month high and was off 0.3 percent to 96.813 against a basket of major currencies on lower U.S. bond yields and following the U.S. new-home sales data. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N12Q2YR
Crude oil prices fell, with U.S. crude CLc1 off 1.6 percent to $43.90 and Brent down 0.8 percent to $47.60 as a global supply glut pushed fuel storage sites close to capacity, and as fewer speculators were willing to bet on a rise in prices. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N12Q1CG
Prices on 10-year Treasuries US10YT=RR were up 7/32 in price to yield 2.06 percent as they retreated from two-week highs. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N12Q1HV
(Editing by Bernadette Baum)