GLOBAL MARKETS-Shares ease as investors await more data
TOKYO, March 5 (Reuters) - Asian shares eased on Monday as investors turned cautious about riding further on liquidity-driven optimsm without seeing more evidence of firmer growth and remained watchful of developments in the euro zone's debt crisis and oil market.
"The main risks to our cautiously constructive outlook continue to be Europe, weaker-than-expected Chinese data and higher oil prices," Barclays Capital anlaysts said.
COMMODITIES-Metals, oil drop as firm dollar sparks risk selling
NEW YORK, March 2 (Reuters) - Oil slid more than 2 percent on Friday, and copper and gold fell too as Spain's challenge to a new fiscal pact from the European Union triggered a dollar rally, prompting investors to sell dollar-denominated commodities.
"Although the oil complex is responding to some softening in the euro and the equities, the main source of selling has been a disgorgement of risk premium following yesterday's frenzied price advance (on) reports of Saudi pipeline explosions," Jim Ritterbusch, president at Ritterbusch & Associates, said in a research note.
Oil falls, posts weekly loss after Saudi supply scare
NEW YORK, March 2 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell 2 percent on Friday after Saudi Arabia eased investor concerns about a reported pipeline explosion that had pushed Brent to the highest level since 2008.
"There were no acts of sabotage in the kingdom yesterday," Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki told Reuters. He did not elaborate.
NYMEX-Natural gas ends up, shorts cover ahead of weekend
NEW YORK, March 2 (Reuters) - Front-month U.S. natural gas futures, underpinned by short-covering after Thursday's steep slide, ended modestly higher on Friday but gains were limited by mild late-winter weather forecasts and bloated supplies.
"I think the market was just consolidating today after breaking down yesterday, but it looks like the first two weeks of March are going to be really mild," said Steve Mosley at SMC Advisory Services in Arkansas.
Euro Coal-Prices hold steady despite gas, oil falls
LONDON, March 2 (Reuters) - Prompt physical coal prices were little changed on Friday after a day of quiet trading and little direction from either the oil or gas markets.
"There's been very limited appetite to trade. People are unsure," one European trader said.
China's growing strategic stake in the Middle East
--John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own--
LONDON, March 2 (Reuters) - China's growing demand for imported oil, coupled with the development of new oil and gas supplies in North America, is set to transform the international security situation in the Middle East over the next 20 years.
That is the inescapable conclusion from an arresting slide in a presentation given by Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), at a seminar on the future of energy in Mexico City on Feb. 29.
Indonesia's proposed fuel subsidy cut needs encouraging
-- Clyde Russell is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own. --
SINGAPORE, March 2 (Reuters) - It's encouraging to see Indonesia taking tentative steps towards cutting its overly generous fuel subsidies, a move that will hopefully inspire other Asian nations to do the same.
While China grabs the headlines as the main driver of rising global oil consumption, demand in other Asian nations is also climbing in contrast to steady-to-lower usage in North America and Europe.
China to "push forward" building oil reserve tanks -official
BEIJING, March 5 (Reuters) - China will "push forward" with building phase-two strategic oil reserve sites, Liu Tienan, head of the China National Energy Administration told reporters on Monday.
Liu didn't give further details when asked about progress on the reserve bases. Industry officials have said China is expected to complete building the phase-two tanks around the end of this year, after kicking off construction in early 2009.
Enbridge U.S. oil line to be shut for four more days
NEW LENOX, Illinois, March 4 (Reuters) - A key segment of Enbridge Inc's oil pipeline system in the U.S. Midwest will remain shut down for up to four more days after a deadly vehicle accident in Illinois caused an oil leak and fire, likely squeezing supplies for refiners in the region, the company said on Sunday .
The shutdown of Enbridge's 318,000 barrel a day Line 14/64, part of a network that carries oil produced in Canada to Griffith, Indiana, from Superior, Wisconsin, is also expected to pressure already-weak prices for Canadian crude this week as supplies back up in Alberta, market sources and analysts said.
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