20121214 1115 Global Market & Energy Related News.

GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian shares ease as "fiscal cliff" weighs
TOKYO, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Asian shares snapped a week-long winning streak, tracking global equities lower, on concerns that U.S. lawmakers are still too far apart to avert a fiscal crisis with an end-of-year deadline looming.
"The index is likely to waver a little following U.S. markets, and also on profit-taking since it crossed the 2,000-mark yesterday," Kim Joo-yong, an analyst at Bookook Securities, said of the Korea Composite Stock Price Index.

FOREX-Yen on track for another sorry week as BOJ looms
SYDNEY, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The yen remained in the doldrums as investors continued to give it a wide berth on expectations the Bank of Japan would print more money next week to stimulate the world's third biggest economy.
"We forecast more yen weakness in 2013... eventually, the yen must weaken because the economy needs help so badly, but we have seen many years of policy timidity and frequent policy disappointments," said Kit Juckes, strategist at Societe Generale.

U.S. labor market brightens, consumers step up spending
WASHINGTON, Dec 13 (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell sharply last week to a near four-year low and retail sales rebounded in November, hopeful signs for the struggling U.S. economic recovery.
Initial claims for state unemployment aid fell for a fourth straight week, dropping 29,000 to a seasonally adjusted 343,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. They are now at their lowest level since early October, and within a hair of territory last seen in early 2008.

Oil falls as fiscal cliffhanger fuels caution
NEW YORK, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Thursday as worries about the economic impact of a U.S. fiscal crisis overshadowed improvements in U.S. jobs data and retail sales.
"The U.S. data took our minds off the fiscal cliff for a few moments, but the possibility that going over the cliff might cause a recession continues to limit crude prices, along with high inventories and relatively warm temperatures in the U.S.," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.