* Dollar dips on expectations U.S. rates on hold this year
* Oil slips, U.S. rate outlook lifts gold (Updates prices, changes dateline from previous LONDON)
By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK, Oct 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar fell on Monday and gold continued to rise as markets priced the possibility that the Federal Reserve would not begin a tightening cycle this year, while U.S. stocks opened little changed.
Crude futures CLc1 fell nearly 2 percent, after gaining almost 9 percent last week, while Brent LCOc1 also slipped but remained comfortably above $50 a barrel.
The U.S. bond market was closed for the Columbus Day holiday.
On Wall Street, major indexes were little changed but utilities - often traded in lieu of bonds due to their perceived lower risk and high dividends - outperformed with a 1.1 percent advance on the S&P 500 utilities index .SPLRCU .
German utilities soared after concerns over nuclear costs eased.
With uncertainty about the path the Fed will take at the two meetings left this year and whether the global economy is getting traction, traders will turn their attention towards earnings this week as focus shifts to fundamentals.
"Earnings are now going to give investors a little more evidence of what's really going on," said Andre Bakhos, managing director at Janlyn Capital in New Jersey.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 13.16 points, or 0.08 percent, to 17,097.65, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 1.27 points, or 0.06 percent, to 2,013.62 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 1.17 points, or 0.02 percent, to 4,831.64.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 and the euro zone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index .STOXX50E both fell slightly after rallying last week. MSCI's all-country world equity index .MIWD00000PUS was down 0.1 percent.
Chinese stocks .SSEC jumped over 3 percent in heavy volume to end at their highest since Aug. 21. China's central bank took fresh steps to inject liquidity into the economy and said the stock market's correction "is almost over." urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N12C1QI
Japanese markets were closed for a holiday.
GREENBACK REMAINS WEAK
The dollar index .DXY edged lower, trading near its lowest in almost a month.
The euro EUR= was up 0.1 percent at $1.1368 and the yen 0.2 percent stronger at 119.96 to the greenback.
China's yuan CNY= firmed as far as 6.3175 to the dollar, its strongest since the Aug. 11 devaluation. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N12C1ES
"We could get some further weakness in the dollar versus the euro and yen, but those two are mainly along for the ride. Most of the weakness will be concentrated on emerging currencies, said Stephen Gallo, a strategist with BMO in London.
Spot gold XAU= rose 0.4 percent after gaining 1.6 percent last week.
Copper rose following a more than 3 percent gain last week after production cuts by Glencore (L:GLEN) boosted base metals, but analysts warned the shift in output may not be enough to offset weak demand growth in China.
Brent was down 58 cents a barrel at $52.07 after reaching an earlier high of $53.31. U.S. light crude was down 78 cents at $48.85.