(Changes dateline from LONDON; recasts with U.S. and Canadian markets open; adds emerging market stocks)
* Earlier equity gloom lifts as Brexit fallout fears dissipate
* Materials sector leads U.S., Canadian stocks lower
* U.S. yield curve flattest in a month
* U.S. crude down after big stockpile build report
By Hilary Russ
NEW YORK, Aug 24 (Reuters) - European stocks scored consecutive daily gains for the first time in three weeks on Wednesday, drawing support from a weak euro, but U.S. and Canadian stocks drifted down as lower metal and oil prices weighed on the materials sector.
Emerging market stocks retreated 1 percent .MSCIEF , led by political risk-driven losses in South Africa and Turkey, while broader sentiment was dented by a revival of U.S. rate rise expectations. are largely waiting for clues about the timing of the next U.S. interest rate in a speech from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Friday at a meeting of global central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Futures markets assign a roughly one-in-five chance it will be in September, and 50-50 odds by the end of the year.
On a light day for data, investors' nerves may have been soothed by signs that the anticipated economic seizure in Britain - and beyond - from the shock vote in June to leave the European Union had not materialised.
"Brexit? What Brexit?" asked Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank. "In the rest of the EU, the repercussions of the Brexit vote have been rather mild."
The FTSEuroFirst index of the leading 300 European shares .FTEU3 closed up 0.3 percent, having earlier fallen as much as 0.4 percent, and Germany's DAX .GDAXI staged a similar rebound to trade up 0.5 percent before paring some gains.
Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE ended 0.48 percent lower, underperforming European peers, hurt by weakness in mining giant Glencore GLEN.L . rose to a three-week high as speculators further cut bets against the currency after data indicated the economy was holding up after the Brexit vote. euro fell to a fresh one-week low against the U.S. dollar EUR= , last down 0.4 percent to $1.1257. were the biggest loser on the S&P 500 index, with the sector dropping 0.6 percent .SPLRCM .
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 41.02 points, or 0.22 percent, to 18,506.28, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 4.56 points, or 0.21 percent, to 2,182.34 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 9.16 points, or 0.17 percent, to 5,250.92.
Oil extended losses, with U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 falling 3.2 percent to $46.56 per barrel, after an unexpected large build up in U.S. crude stockpiles renewed worries about oversupply. crude prices LCOc1 were down 2.22 percent at $48.85.
Slumping oil prices drove Canadian stocks lower. The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE was down 0.41 percent. Treasury yields rose slightly after data showing existing home sales fell in July after four straight months of gains. The 10-year yield was last at 1.549 percent. long-dated yield curve had flattened to the lowest in one-and-a-half years on Tuesday. A flattening curve is often seen as a harbinger of low growth, inflation and rates. Global assets in 2016
http://reut.rs/1WAiOSC European economic overview
http://link.reuters.com/vyx93w Currencies in 2016
http://link.reuters.com/tak27s Emerging markets in 2016
http://reut.rs/1ZKAaO6 Oil prices
http://link.reuters.com/beb23v
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