The euro fell for the fifth day versus the US dollar to a near two-week low as the premium investors demand to hold Greek government bonds rather than German Bunds surged past 500 basis points.

Greece is still pushing to finance its debt through market issuance but investors increasingly believe Athens will have to tap a joint European Union-International Monetary Fund emergency loan package.

Investors' and traders' patience wore thin after Greece's finance minister said talks with European and IMF officials will last two weeks.

The move to dump Greek debt may force Athens to take aid sooner rather than later, even as Standard & Poor's rating agency said it does not expect Greece to default.

The euro was down 0.25 percent at $1.3402.

Stocks were mostly little changed, pulled between solid corporate results and Athens' woes.

MSCI's all-country world index was down 0.2 percent, and the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 closed down 0.7 percent at 1,096.10 points.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 20.63 points, or 0.19 percent, at 11,137.69. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 0.89 points, or 0.07 percent, at 1,208.06. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 1.95 points, or 0.08 percent, at 2,502.26.

Copper prices fell more than 1 percent and gold trimmed earlier gains as the euro fell broadly. Bullion managed to hold its ground as worries about Greece spurred safe-haven buying.

Spot gold prices rose $7.35 to $1,147.30 an ounce.

Oil prices rose slightly on Wednesday, as the resumption of European flights and strong Chinese demand outweighed a bearish rise in US crude and refined product inventories.

US crude futures traded up 26 cents to $84.11 a barrel by 2:03 p.m. EDT (1803 GMT), after dropping to a session low of $82.92 in the wake of the EIA inventory report. ICE Brent crude gained $1.10 to $85.90 a barrel.

US crude oil inventories rose 1.9 million barrels last week, against the forecast for a slight drop, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) oil inventory data showed.

Distillate and gasoline stockpiles increased more than expected. Analysts said the inventories builds raised concerns about recovery of US fuel demand, which was hit hard by the recession.

"Crude futures are up, but this shouldn't be the case here, looking at inventories, particularly product stocks, being up.

The fundamental picture shows there is no strong case for prices going up," said Gene McGillian, analyst at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.

Further support came from data showing China's implied oil demand in March rose 12.3 percent from a year earlier, the seventh month of double-digit growth in a row, as warming weather boosted dormant farming activities.

The world's second-largest oil user consumed 8.25 million barrels of oil per day last month, 4.6 percent or 400,000 bpd less than February, according to Reuters calculations based on official data.