DUBAI, May 15 (Reuters) - Stock markets in the Middle East may consolidate with a soft bias on Sunday after the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI dropped 1.1 percent on Friday and Moody's Investors service cut its debt ratings or outlooks for countries in the region.

Moody's lowered its ratings for Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain while assigning negative outlooks to the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Bahrain. Its rating of Saudi Arabia is still two notches above Standard & Poor's, but the action did underline continued pressure from low oil prices; negative outlooks were assigned to the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar. ID:nL5N18B08Q

Egypt's credit outlook was cut to negative from stable, a sign that hoped-for improvements in the economy following massive foreign aid and efforts at reform are still proving difficult to achieve. ID:nFWN18A0YV

Dubai builder Arabtec ARTC.DU reported its first-quarter net loss narrowed to 46.4 million dirhams ($12.63 million) from a loss of 279.8 million dirhams a year earlier. This may be seen as positive by some investors; analysts polled by Reuters had on average forecast a loss of 123.6 million dirhams. ID:nD5N14X01W

But Kuwait Food Co FOOD.KW (Americana) posted a 12.3 percent fall in first-quarter net profit, citing higher costs and losses from foreign exchange for the decline. ID:nD5N16W029

(Reporting by Andrew Torchia) ((andrew.torchia@thomsonreuters.com; +9715 6681 7277; Reuters Messaging: andrew.torchia.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))