(Adds Wall Street futures, details, updates prices)
* Investors await Japan, UK, U.S. central bank decisions
* Apple results eyed as U.S. tech disappointments sour mood
* Japan government bonds sold off ahead of policy meeting
* Dow Jones futures gain on Caterpillar earnings
By Danilo Masoni
MILAN, July 30 (Reuters) - World stocks and the dollar werebroadly steady on Monday as a busy week of central bank meetingsand company updates began, while Japanese government bonds soldoff before possible monetary policy tweaks.
Disappointing updates from U.S. tech heavyweightsovershadowed solid results elsewhere, helping knock Europeanshares off six-week highs, while a MSCI index that tracks sharesin 47 countries pared losses to trade flat.
"Quarterly results continue to be more than good overall,
but markets appear to be particularly sensitive to the sporadicnegative updates, especially from tech stocks," JCI Capitalstrategist and fund manager Alessandro Balsotti said.
"Meanwhile before the August lull - although that's notalways the case for markets - we're bracing for an intense week,packed with central bank meetings and macro data," he said.
On Monday, industrial heavyweight Caterpillar postedhigher quarterly profit that beat market forecasts and upgradedthe full-year profit outlook, citing robust global demand.
The encouraging update helped Dow futures rise, while Nasdaqand S&P futures remained under pressure from technology stocks. Apple . is also among the 140 S&P 500 companies that report results this week. The iPhone maker willbe closely watched after disappointing results from Facebook and Twitter shook confidence in tech resilience.
JPMorgan reported relatively aggressive moves into "value"stocks - banks, in particular - and away from shares leveragedto economic growth.
"Tech really began cracking on Tuesday before the floodgatesopened on Friday," JPMorgan analysts wrote in a note.
"The rotation will likely continue, benefiting valuecategories at the expense of momentum/tech as rates are biasedhigher," they said. "Europe's higher weighting to banks/resourcewill help it vs the U.S."
In Europe, 70 companies on the pan-regional STOXX 600 benchmark are due to report their updates this weekwith figures from big banks, including BNP Paribas ,Intesa Sanpaolo and Lloyds in the spotlight.
According to I/B/E/S data, second-quarter earnings ofcompanies on the STOXX are expected to have risen 7.4 percent.
Earnings for the S&P 500 are forecast to have risen 22.6percent with more than four out of five companies, which havealready reported, beating analyst expectations. At 43 percent,earnings beats in Europe have lagged those on Wall Street.
CENTRAL BANK TESTAway from earnings, the top focus will be three central bankmeetings. Bank of Japan and the Bank of England will be eyed forpossible policy tweaks, while the U.S. Federal Reserve isunlikely to deliver surprises.
The Fed meets on Tuesday and Wednesday and is expected tokeep rates unchanged and reaffirm the outlook for further raterises. The market is almost fully priced for a hike in Septemberand leaning towards a further move before the end of the year.
The BoJ meeting that ends on Tuesday will be closely watchedamid speculation the central bank might tweak its massiveasset-buying programme and take a step towards less monetarypolicy accommodation.
As the market tried to test the central bank's intention,Japanese government bonds sagged, sending the benchmark 10-yearyield to its highest level for almost a year and a half. That forced the BoJ to conduct a special bond-buyingoperation for two sessions in a row and to end up buying arecord amount to stem rising bond yields.
On currency markets, the chance of a BoJ shift has sent theyen higher in the last week or so, leaving the dollar around111.07 yen from this month's 113.18 peak.
Against a basket of currencies, the dollar moved in tightranges. It last traded at 94.541 , having repeatedlyfailed to clear resistance around 95.652 this month.
The euro edged up to $1.1681 against the dollar,after the European Central Bank reaffirmed last week that rateswould remain low through the summer of 2019.
Meanwhile, euro zone government bond yields rose across theboard after a strong Italian auction boosted demand for Italiandebt at the expense of higher-rated markets in the bloc.
In Asia, eyes were on China's yuan after it suffered thelongest weekly losing streak since November 2015. It weakenedfurther, slipping past 6.8400 per dollar for thefirst time since June last year before paring losses.
In commodity markets, oil prices rose as investors remainedcautious over the supply outlook, having gained nearly 5 percentin price since the middle of July. U.S. crude added 132 cents to $70.01, while Brent rose 73 cents to $74.83 a barrel.
In metals, copper prices fell as investors focused insteadon economic data this week expected to show slowing growth intop metals consumer China. Spot gold eased 0.07 percent to $1,221.48.
(Reporting by Danilo Masoni Additional reporting by Wayne Colein SydneyEditing by Louise Ireland)
danilo.masoni.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net; On Twitter ))