Brazil stocks open slightly lower in light trade

SAO PAULO, July 3 (Reuters) - Brazilian stocks opened to slight seesawing on Friday, as a holiday in the United States and overall caution about the global economy may lead to a day of light trading.

The benchmark Bovespa index .BVSP inched down 0.04 percent to 51,045.28 in early trading. The U.S. stock markets were closed on Friday in observance of Independence Day, which falls on a Saturday this year.

"The volume should be really light today," said Januario Hostin Jr., an analyst with Leme Investimentos, in a phone interview. "Today it's more about adjusting positions."

The Bovespa index lost 1 percent on Thursday and the Dow Jones Industrial average .DJI 2.6 percent as gloomy U.S. jobs data spooked already-nervous investors. A global economic recovery, the data suggested, might not be imminent after all.

Brazilian equities often shadow U.S. markets, which investors use to measure international sentiment.

Yet in Brazil, tentative green shoots emerged on Thursday, with industrial production up in May and inflation in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city, slowing from the previous month. New car sales also reached an all-time high in June, buoyed by a government tax break introduced in December.

The foreign exchange market was flat in mid-morning, with neither Brazil's currency, the real BRBY or the dollar moving against each other more than incrementally.

Major countries should support the dollar as the main international currency, a Japanese official told Reuters on Friday. But China wants a debate on a new global reserve currency when Group of Eight leaders (G8) meet with the G5 emerging economies next week in Italy, G8 sources told Reuters. See [ID:nT294215].

No relevant U.S. or Brazil data releases were slated for Friday, adding to the relative stillness of the equity and currency markets.

Commodities lost ground in the morning, with oil CLc1 down 0.81 percent.

State-controlled energy company Petrobras (PETR4.SA) slipped 0.54 percent to 31.07 reais. The company this week started refining the first oil from Tupi field, located at the pre-salt area of Santos Basin.

Vale (VALE5.SA), the world's largest iron-ore producer, also retreated, dropping 0.37 percent to 29.94 reais.

Petrobras and Vale have the largest weighting in the Bovespa index.

YIELDS

Yields on Brazilian interest rate futures contracts <0#DIJ:> largely fell. A slowdown in Sao Paulo price increases in June fueled speculation that, with inflationary pressures low, the Brazilian central bank still has room to chip away at the benchmark interest rate, the Selic, which is already at a record low of 9.25 percent.

The yield on the contract due Jan. 2011 DIJF1, among the most highly-traded of the day, declined to 9.88 percent from 9.92 percent. (Reporting by Luciana F. Lopez; editing by Leslie Gevirtz)