World stocks steady; focus on Jackson Hole keeps market cautious

World stocks steadied on Thursday after two turbulent weeks as geopolitical worries eased in Asia and caution prevailed on the day the annual Jackson Hole gathering of central bankers gets underway.

The MSCI World index .WORLDE, which fell to a five-week low on Monday, was down 0.05 percent. Gains by cyclical stocks helped Europe's benchmark STOXX 600 index inch up 0.2 percent. 

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS also gained, shaking off jitters that gripped markets after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to shut down the U.S. government and end the North American Free Trade Agreement. 

Trump said on Tuesday he would be willing to risk a government shutdown to secure funding for a wall along the Mexico border. Those comments came before a late-September deadline to raise the U.S. debt ceiling or risk defaulting on debt payments.

But Japan's Nikkei .N225 fell 0.4 percent, dragged down a stronger yen and by steel makers, after reports that the country's biggest producer was cutting prices. 

Markets were focusing on the central banking conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi were both due to speak, although new policy messages were considered unlikely.

The dollar edged up against some other major currencies after falling on worries about a possible U.S. government shutdown. The dollar is down 14 percent against the euro this year. 

The dollar index .DXY, which tracks the U.S. currency against a basket of six other major currencies, gained 0.2 percent to 93.311 on Thursday, following the previous day's 0.4 percent slide. 

The euro EUR=EBS slipped 0.1 percent at $1.17935, after climbing 0.4 percent on Wednesday on surveys that showed German and French manufacturing and services were expanding . 

In commodities, oil was steady, holding on to most of their recent gains after another fall in U.S. crude inventories indicated a tighter market, and as a tropical storm headed towards oil producing facilities in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Brent crude futures, LCOc1 the international benchmark for oil prices, were trading flat at $52.58 per barrel.