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By Sinéad Carew and Amanda Cooper

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. equities were barely changed while European stocks fell on Wednesday and safe-haven gold was in demand as investors anxiously awaited details of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff plans and worried about an intensifying global trade war.

Investor focus on Wednesday was firmly on reciprocal levies the White House is due to announce after the U.S. stock market close, in what Trump has called America's "Liberation Day."

Trump is expected to add new trade tariffs that take effect immediately, adding to already imposed levies on aluminium, steel and autos, along with increased duties on all goods from China that have rattled markets as fears grow a full-blown trade war could trigger a sharp global economic slowdown.

European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday that the tariffs will be negative across the world, with the damage depending on how far they go, how long they last and whether they lead to successful negotiations.

With so much focus on trade, stock futures barely moved after Wednesday's a survey of U.S. private sector employment showed a rise of 155,000 in the number of workers on payroll, above a forecast for an increase of 115,000. On Tuesday the Labour Department said U.S. job openings fell in February.

"Right now we're all waiting with baited breath to see what the ultimate tariff policy will be. Seeing a little bit of a selloff is not surprising," said Don Calcagni, chief investment officer at Mercer Advisors in Denver.

"A lot of concern about tariffs, has already been priced in. The question is when President Trump speaks at 4PM today, how final is this new tariff policy? If it sounds like there's room for it to change yet again that's going to fuel more volatility. The market right now is looking for certainty and its really up to President Trump to deliver on that."

On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 and the Nasdaq ended Tuesday's choppy session with gains while the Dow finished a shade lower.

On Wednesday at 11:01 a.m. the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 68.25 points, or 0.16%, to 42,058.42, the S&P 500 rose 6.05 points, or 0.11%, to 5,639.12 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 6.81 points, or 0.04%, to 17,457.40.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose 0.21 points, or 0.02%, to 832.32. The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.67%.

In currencies, the U.S. dollar fell against major peers such as the euro, yen and sterling on Wednesday, as traders awaited tariff details, which could potentially upend global trade and shake financial markets.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro,fell 0.38% to 103.80.

The euro was up 0.55% at $1.0852 while sterling strengthened 0.34% to $1.2962.

But against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.08% to 149.72.

In Treasuries, the yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 0.7 basis points to 4.165%, from 4.156% late on Tuesday. The 30-year bond yield fell 0.1 basis points to 4.5136% from 4.515% late on Tuesday.

The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, rose 2.6 basis points to 3.889%, from 3.863% late on Tuesday.

The price of gold, viewed as a safe haven in times of financial and political stress, climbed back towards an intraday record. [GOL/] Gold has jumped about 19% so far this year, adding to a 27% gain in 2024 that was its best annual performance since 2010.

On Wednesday, spot gold rose 0.49% to $3,125.85 an ounce. U.S. gold futures rose 0.59% to $3,137.30 an ounce.

In energy markets, oil prices were mixed after U.S. data showed a surprise large build in us crude inventories.

U.S. crude rose 0.14% to $71.30 a barrel and Brent fell to $74.45 per barrel, down 0.05% on the day.

(Additional reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore; Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Tomasz Janowski and Alex Richardson)