* S&P 500 up in early trading * U.S. dollar down slightly * Bitcoin hits record high (Updates throughout with early U.S. market activity; changes byline, dateline, previous LONDON) NEW YORK, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Stock indexes rose globally on Wednesday as more companies reported earnings that beat analysts’ expectations, while the U.S. dollar dipped. U.S. crude oil futures turned positive after data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed inventories dropped in the most recent week. In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin hit a record high, a day after the first U.S. bitcoin futures-based exchange-traded fund began trading. The corporate earnings season will be in full swing in many countries over the coming weeks. Verizon Communications Inc gained 2.1% as it added more postpaid phone subscribers than expected in the third quarter. Tesla is among companies that will release results later on Wednesday. But investors are on high alert for corporate comments on the impact of supply constraints, higher costs and labor shortages. They will also be glued to earnings from the heavily weighted U.S. technology names. “People are waiting to see what the large tech companies are going to report. That is probably the real reason we’re seeing individual stocks responding more than the broader market,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 162.69 points, or 0.46%, to 35,620, the S&P 500 gained 16.45 points, or 0.36%, to 4,536.08 and the Nasdaq Composite added 22.58 points, or 0.15%, to 15,151.67. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.30% and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.39%. In the U.S. Treasury market, benchmark 10-year notes last fell 4/32 in price to yield 1.6461%. Investors are trying to gauge the outlook for interest rates. They expect the U.S. Federal Reserve to announce tapering of its bond buying, and money markets futures are pricing in one U.S. rate hike later next year. The greenback hit a one-year high against a basket of other currencies last week as market participants ramped up bets that the Fed will raise rates sooner than expected to quell rising price pressures. Those bets have faded, however, while investors are pricing for even more aggressive rate increases in other countries and as commodity-linked currencies including the Canadian and Australian dollars outperform. The dollar index was last down 0.2% at 93.63. In energy markets, U.S. crude recently rose 0.71% to $83.55 per barrel and Brent was at $85.33, up 0.29% on the day. U.S. gold futures gained 0.73% to $1,782.70 an ounce. Additional reporting by Tom Wilson in London, Karen Brettell in New York, Devik Jain in Bengaluru, and Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo; Editing by Catherine Evans, Shounak Dasgupta, William Maclean