20130110 1107 Global Markets & Energy Related News.

GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian shares steady, eye China data, ECB
TOKYO, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Asian shares steadied following an overnight rise in global equities on early optimism about U.S. earnings, but investors remained cautious ahead of China's trade data and the European Central Bank meeting later in the day.
Global equities rose modestly on Wednesday after aluminium maker Alcoa Inc kickstarted the U.S. earnings season with a brighter outlook for global demand. U.S. agribusiness giant Cargill Inc followed with a four-fold increase in quarterly earnings on Wednesday.

FOREX-Yen near 2 1/2-year low as BOJ meeting nears
TOKYO, Jan 10 (Reuters) - The yen was on the defensive near a 2 1/2-year low on expectations Bank of Japan policy will take a fresh and bold approach to boost inflation later this month.
"I feel it's about time a for correction to set in after a big fall in the yen. Short-term players will likely take profits as soon as the yen stops falling," said Teppei Ino, currency strategist at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.

ECB to hold fire as euro zone economy shows glimmers of hope
FRANKFURT, Jan 10 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank is expected to keep interest rates at a record low of 0.75 percent, refraining from a cut as the euro zone economy shows some signs of stabilising and inflation still tops its target.
The 17-country euro zone is in recession, but recent data points to some stabilisation, and ECB President Mario Draghi could strike a slightly more positive tone in the news conference that follows the rate decision.

China trade to pick up in Dec, but outlook cloudy
BEIJING, Jan 10 (Reuters) - China's export growth is set to rebound from a three-month low in December, although the recovery is likely to be feeble as U.S. and European demand for Chinese goods is still far below levels that would herald a convincing revival.
In a sign that exports have been the biggest drag on China's economy in the past two years, economic data should also show the world's fastest-growing major economy missing its 10 percent growth target for trade for 2012.

OIL - Oil slips following big U.S. gasoline stock build
NEW YORK, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Oil futures fell slightly on Wednesday after government data showed U.S. fuel stocks rose sharply last week, a sign of ample supply in the world's top consumer of oil.
"The report is solidly bearish with the large builds in refined products, especially gasoline," said John Kilduff of hedge fund Again Capital in New York.

US fuel stocks rise sharply, crude up on imports jump-EIA
NEW YORK, Jan 9 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil stocks rose in line with expectations last week and refined fuel stocks surged even as refineries cut utilization rates, according to weekly data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday.
Crude stocks rose by 1.31 million barrels to 361.25 million barrels in the week to Jan 4, the EIA said. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected stocks to rise by 1.5 million barrels. Crude oil imports rose 1.25 million barrels per day to 8.3 million barrels per day (bpd) in the week.

Norway 2012 gas exports at record thanks to Troll
OSLO, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Norway exported a record 107.6 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas in 2012, gas system operator Gassco said on Wednesday.
Norway pipeline gas exports meets around a fifth of Europe's consumption, making it the second-biggest supplier after Russia, and its importance has been increasing as domestic production depletes in the UK.

UAE produced 2.6 mln bpd of oil in December – minister
ABU DHABI, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) produced around 2.6 million barrels a day (bpd) of crude in December, its oil minister Mohammed al-Hamli said on Wednesday.
He said the current production capacity of the OPEC member  was 2.8 million bpd and he hoped it would rise at some point this year to 3 million bpd - a figure the country had been expecting to near at around the end of 2012.

West African oil exports to Asia to rise in January
LONDON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - West African crude oil exports to Asia will rise slightly in January versus December, according to data compiled by Reuters, with stronger demand from India offsetting a fall in exports to China.
Asia is expected to import 1.81 million barrels per day (bpd) of West African crude in January versus 1.75 million in December, with China importing 33 cargoes and India 18, according to data based on movements seen by oil traders.