S&P 500 near flat in early New York trading Evergrande averts...

• S&P 500 near flat in early New York trading
• Evergrande averts default with surprise interest payment
• U.S. 10-year yields lower

(Updates with early U.S. markets activity, changes byline, dateline, previous LONDON)

Global stock indexes were mostly flat to higher on Friday, with financial shares providing some support to the S&P 500 index in early trading, while the U.S. dollar slipped against a basket of currencies.

MSCI's broadest gauge of global shares .MIWD00000PUS and the S&P 500 both were on track for a third straight week of gains.

Investors also digested news that China Evergrande Group 3333.HK appeared to have averted default with a last-minute bond coupon payment, a source said on Friday.

In the foreign exchange market, investors continued to unload long positions that benefited from rising expectations the Federal Reserve will raise rates sooner than previously thought.

"There’s a bit of a positioning unwind taking place. We've obviously seen a firmer dollar since the September," Fed meeting, said Mazen Issa, senior FX strategist at TD Securities in New York. "That also dovetails with the seasonal tendency for the dollar to soften into the end of the month."

The Fed has signalled it could start to taper stimulus as soon as next month, with rate hikes to follow late next year.

The dollar index =USD fell 0.17% to 93.57, and is down from a one-year high of 94.56 last week.

On Wall Street, the financial sector .SPSY was up 0.9%, while Intel INTC.O shares fell and were a drag on the market. Late Thursday, Intel reported sales that missed expectations. It also pointed to shortages of chips holding back sales of its flagship processors.

Next week brings reports from several key mega-cap names including Amazon AMZN.O , and bullish investors are hoping they can follow some forecast-beating earnings from others so far this earnings season.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 85.49 points, or 0.24%, to 35,688.57, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.42 points, or 0.01%, to 4,549.36 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 72.97 points, or 0.48%, to 15,142.73.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX rose 0.66% and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.10%.

Data on Friday showed euro zone inflation expectations are at their highest in years, amid a rash of warnings from companies including Nestle NESN.S , ABB ABBN.S and Unilever ULVR.L .

In the U.S. bond market, yields on longer-dated U.S. Treasuries edged lower.

The yield on 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR was down 0.5 basis points to 1.670% after rising to a five-month high of 1.7064% late Thursday.

U.S. crude CLc1 rose 0.57% to $82.97 per barrel and Brent LCOc1 was at $85.08, up 0.56% on the day.

U.S. gold futures GCc1 gained 1.44% to $1,806.90 an ounce. Also, bitcoin BTC=BTSP fell 1.15% to $61,503.91.

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