(Recasts, adds quote and detail, updates prices)
* World stocks broadly unchanged, European shares edge lower as results in focus
* Most Asia share markets slip before Sino-US trade discussions
* Dollar just off multi-month highs as Fed stays the course
* Oil prices inch higher, gold up a tad
By Kit Rees
LONDON, May 3 (Reuters) - World stocks made little progress on Thursday as worries over global trade tensions weighed, while the U.S. dollar consolidated recent bumper gains after the Federal Reserve reaffirmed the outlook for more rate hikes.
The MSCI world equity index .MIWD00000PUS , which tracks shares in 47 countries, traded flat in percentage terms. Europe's pan-European STOXX 600 .STOXX index was down 0.1 percent as the euro held firm.
As the Fed policy meeting threw up no surprises with rates left unchanged, the focus shifted back to simmering trade tensions between the United States and China, as well as the ongoing first quarter earnings season.
In Europe, earnings disappointments from medical technology company Smith & Nephew SN.L and postal services provider Bpost BPOST.BR soured the mood as the stocks fell 5.9 percent and 10.9 percent respectively, while German drug and crop chemicals maker Bayer BAYGn.DE flagged a stronger euro in its update. futures for the S&P 500 .ESc1 crept 0.3 percent higher, with overnight results from Kraft Heinz KHC.O , Tesla TSLA.O and Spotify SPOT.N in focus. far it has been a strong earnings season, with the year-on-year blended earnings growth estimate coming in at more than 25 percent in the first quarter for S&P 500 companies, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data, while the equivalent figure for the MSCI EMU index (European Economic and Monetary Union) is 14.6 percent in dollar terms.
The negative mood carried over from the Asian trading session, where shares slipped as hopes waned for real progress in Sino-U.S. trade talks, following reports the Trump administration is considering executive action to restrict some Chinese companies' ability to sell telecoms equipment in the United States.
"The risk at the moment is that the increasing uncertainty could create ambiguity in executives' heads, it makes corporate decision-making more difficult and then (leads to) a decline in investment," Alastair George, chief investment strategist at Edison Investment Research, said.
Edison's George added that the impact from trade tensions was hypothetical at the moment, though.
Talks between U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He are due to kick off later on Thursday. a breakthrough was viewed as highly unlikely, especially as the U.S. embassy said the delegation would leave as early as Friday evening. broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS fell 0.5 percent, while South Korean stocks .KS11 stumbled 0.7 percent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index .HSI ended 1.3 percent lower, but Chinese shares bucked the trend. The blue chip CSI 300 .CSI300 was up 0.8 percent, but not far from an eight-month low hit in April.
NO SURPRISES FROM THE FED
The Fed policy meeting ended with no change, as expected, while the central bank expressed confidence a recent rise in inflation to near target would be sustained, leaving it on track to raise borrowing costs in June. statement carried only modest changes in wording, but they were meaningful nonetheless, highlighting that the Fed is optimistic on the outlook and intent on continuing to raise rates at a gradual pace," said Westpac analyst Elliot Clarke.
Yet the Fed also emphasised the inflation target was "symmetric", suggesting it was not inclined to speed up its tightening plans.
"The Fed sees little reason to be concerned with inflation marginally above its 2.0 percent target, particularly after such a long period of underperformance," Clarke said.
Westpac, like the market, expects two more hikes this year.
The Fed statement was not quite as hawkish as some had wagered on and caused a dip in the dollar, though sentiment remained bullish given U.S. rates were still clearly heading higher while those in Europe and Japan lagged far behind.
The euro was last at $1.1972 EUR= having hit a 15-week trough at $1.1936 on Wednesday, uncomfortably close to the low for the year at $1.1915. The euro trimmed gains after Euro zone inflation unexpectedly slipped in April. dollar also scored a three-month peak on the yen at 110.05 JPY=EBS overnight, before edging back to 109.63.
Against a basket of currencies, the dollar index was trading at 92.569 .DXY , after reaching the highest since late December at 92.834.
In the Treasury market, yields dipped slightly US10YT=RR as a quarterly refunding programme of $73 billion came in short of expectations, reducing the pressure on prices from the torrent of supply. prices inched higher with Brent crude futures LCOc1 up at $73.46 a barrel, while U.S. crude CLc1 was at $68.08. O/R
Spot gold XAU= was up 0.4 percent at $1,310.48 an ounce.