20130109 1121 Global Markets & Energy Related News.

GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian shares in ranges as earnings eyed
TOKYO, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Asian shares inched up but the upside was limited as investors waited warily for corporate earnings season to kick off in full force, preferring in the meantime to book profits from a sharp rally at the start of the year.
"The main index is seen rangebound after steadily declining since last week's rapid gains as caution rules before fourth-quarter earnings," Kim Soon-young, an analyst at IBK Securities, said of Seoul shares.

German trade, industry data point to economy shrinking
BERLIN, Jan 8 (Reuters) - More evidence of sliding German exports and industry orders on Tuesday compounded concerns that the euro zone crisis may have battered the region's largest economy into contraction at the end of last year.
German imports and exports slid in November, narrowing the trade surplus, and industry orders fell more than expected. Imports slid 3.7 percent, while exports fell 3.4 percent, data from the Federal Statistics Office showed on Tuesday. Economists polled by Reuters had expected imports to increase by 0.4 percent and shipments abroad to drop 0.5 percent.

FOREX-Yen rises as investors take profits on dollar, euro
TOKYO, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The yen continued to rise against the dollar and the euro in early Asian trading despite expectations of further easing steps from the Bank of Japan, as investors locked in gains.
"Late last year, the yen sharply weakened in thin conditions. If you had to take a market position, could you see any reason to buy yen? No, so the yen was sold," said Kimihiko Tomita, head of foreign exchange for State Street Global Markets in Tokyo. "But markets can't keep moving for weeks on the same factors, even when the overall trend remains the same, so in the short-term, the yen started moving up again."

OIL-Brent crude up as annual rebalancing widens WTI spread
NEW YORK, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Brent crude rose in heavy trading on Tuesday and U.S. crude dipped as the beginning of the annual rebalancing of a key commodities index widened the spread between the two contracts.
"I know that they (the GSCI) are pulling some of the WTI and going into Brent as we're well supplied here," said Richard Ilczyszyn, chief market strategist of iitrader.com LLC in Chicago.

U.S. crude and fuel stocks rise, gasoline up sharply-API
NEW YORK, Jan 8 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil and refined fuel inventories rose sharply last week as crude imports surged, data from the American Petroleum Institute showed on Tuesday.
Crude stockpiles rose by 2.4 million barrels in the week to Jan. 4, mpared with expectations for a 1.5 million barrel build in a Reuters poll of analysts.  The build in gasoline stocks was much sharper, with inventories of the motor fuel expanding by 7.9 million barrels in the week, compared with expectations for a 2.3 million barrel build. Distillate fuels, which include diesel and heating oil, were up by 5.9 million barrels, compared with expectations for a 2 million barrel rise, the API data showed.

U.S. oil production to jump 25 percent by 2014-EIA
NEW YORK Jan 8 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil production is expected to rise by the largest amount on record in 2013, the Energy Information Administration said on Tuesday, and is set to soar by almost a quarter over the next two years.
The EIA, said U.S. crude oil production would grow by 900,000 barrels per day in 2013 to 7.3 million bpd. The agency's forecast in the monthly Short-Term Energy Outlook is 300,000 bpd higher than its estimate in December.

PetroChina 2012 oil production highest in 17 years
BEIJING, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Top Chinese oil and gas producer PetroChina pushed its domestic crude oil output above 110 million tonnes in 2012 for the first time in 17 years, while also achieving its fastest annual output growth in more than a decade.
PetroChina and other state oil majors have been striving to boost their output and reserves to reduce China's dependence on oil imports, which rose to 56 percent of the country's overall requirement in 2011. China, the world's second largest oil consuming country behind the United States, became a net importer in 1993.

PREVIEW-China Dec exports to rebound but recovery seen weak
China's export growth probably rebounded from three-month lows in December, although the recovery is likely to remain shallow due to weak demand in the United States and Europe, the country's two biggest customers.
The median forecast of 25 economists polled by Reuters showed Chinese exports likely grew 4 percent in December from a year ago, up from November's surprisingly sluggish 2.9 percent expansion.