By Claire Sibonney

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar was littlechanged against the greenback on Wednesday as investors waitedto find out whether the Bank of Canada will hike interest ratesfor the third time this year.

The central bank decides on interest rates at 9:00 a.m. in one of the closer calls in some time. Markets onWednesday morning were pricing in about a 73 percentprobability of a quarter-point hike to 1.00 percent, accordingto a Reuters calculation based on yields on overnight indexswaps.

A Reuters poll of 41 forecasters, including Canada's 12primary dealers, showed a majority see a hike, followed by apause for the rest of the year.

"There's going to be some debate as to whether or not theygo but the market by and large has priced in a rate hike," saidJack Spitz, managing director of foreign exchange at NationalBank Financial.

"I think the bank does go, I think the bank's guidance willbe tentative, no different than it was before."

Apart from the rate decision itself, the Bank of Canada'soutlook in its accompanying statement is seen as crucial insetting further direction for the domestic currency.

Elsewhere, global equities showed mixed performance whilecommodity prices were generally weaker, subject to another boutof on-again, off-again investor jitters, this time aboutEuropean banks.

At 7:44 a.m. (1144 GMT), the Canadian dollar stood atC$1.0477 to the U.S. dollar, or 95.45 U.S. cents, just a bitstronger than Tuesday's North American finish at C$1.0480 tothe U.S. dollar, or 95.42 U.S. cents.

"I would see the initial reaction from a rate hike likelyto sell dollar/Canada down to C$1.04 but the soft guidancemight see a better (U.S.) dollar bid," added Spitz.

"But much of that better (U.S.) dollar bid would likely beon the back of global risk factors, which once again aretentative this morning if measured by euro/Swiss anddollar/yen, both trading at trend lows."

Investors are also eyeing the U.S. Federal Reserve'srelease of its Beige Book, due later in the day. This economicevidence gathered from the central bank's 12 regional bankswill provide insight into the state of the U.S. economy, aswell as U.S. retail sales data.

With risk aversion in focus, Canadian bond prices trackedU.S. Treasuries lower.

The two-year Canada bond dropped 1 Canadiancent to yield 1.276 percent, while the 10-year bond fell 19 Canadian cents to yield 2.831 percent.

(Reporting by Claire Sibonney, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)