* Global stocks hold steady on less fearsome jobs report
* US dollar falls vs euro after tepid U.S. jobs report
* Bonds rise as weak jobs figures raise recovery worries
* Crude oil falls below $73 a barrel after U.S. jobs data (Adds opening of U.S. markets; changes byline, previous LONDON)
By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, July 2 (Reuters) - Global stocks and crude oil prices held steady on Friday while safe-haven government debt slipped after U.S. payrolls data came out worse than expected but not as grim as to clearly signal a double-dip recession lay ahead.
European shares pared early gains and oil was little changed after overall U.S. employment in June fell for the first time this year as thousands of temporary census jobs ended, showing the economic recovery is failing to gain traction. For details see: [
]U.S. payrolls dropped by 125,000 -- the largest decline since October -- as temporary hiring for the decennial U.S. Census fell by 225,000. But private sector hiring rose by 83,000 after increasing only 33,000 the prior month, the U.S. Labor Department said.
The U.S. dollar fell against the euro, extending Thursday's steep losses, and the price of U.S. Treasuries were lower. [
] [ ]"Clearly this is telling us we've lost of momentum and growth is slowing," Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts said about the U.S. employment report.
"Has it slowed so much to drive us into a double dip? I think probably not. But clearly we're looking at weak growth in the third quarter," Gault said.
MSCI's all-country world equity index <.MIWD00000PUS> rose 0.4 percent, while its emerging markets index <.MSCIEF> gained 06 percent.
Before 10 a.m., the Dow Jones industrial average <
> was up 32.21 points, or 0.33 percent, at 9,764.74. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was up 5.35 points, or 0.52 percent, at 1,032.72. The Nasdaq Composite Index < > was up 8.03 points, or 0.39 percent, at 2,109.47.Bond prices see-sawed before losing ground as traders scrutinized the payrolls data, which also showed a fall in the unemployment rate as discouraged workers dropped out of the labor force.
Some traders had bet on an even worse result, making the actual showing not so bad by comparison and limiting the upside to Treasury prices.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note <US10YT=RR> was down 7/32 in price to yield 2.98 percent.
The euro gained against the U.S. dollar as investors looked past economic problems in the euro zone and instead focused on the possibility of a stalled economic recovery in the United States.
"The data that we are seeing this week in the U.S. and in China is causing extra nervousness among investors, which probably is a bit exaggerated," said William de Vijlder, chief investment officer at BNP Paribas Investment Partners.
"But risk appetite is already low and this is an extra factor which is pushing people to have a wait-and-see attitude," de Vijlder said.
The euro <EUR=> was up 0.56 percent at $1.2587. Against the yen, the U.S. dollar <JPY=> was up 0.31 percent at 87.87.
But the dollar was down against a basket of major currencies, with the U.S. Dollar Index <.DXY> down 0.56 percent at 84.241.
U.S. light sweet crude oil <CLc1> rose 14 cents percent to $73.09 a barrel.
Earlier in Asia, stocks gave up early gains to trade flat as investors remained nervous ahead of the closely followed U.S. jobs report.
Japan's Nikkei average <
> ended a touch firmer after choppy trade, while the MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000US> was flat. (Reporting by Angela Moon, Nick Olivari, Burton Frierson and Richard Leong in New York; Ikuko Kurahone in London; Lucia Mutikani in Washington; Writing by Herbert Lash)