* Oil steadies after sliding to fresh nearly 7-yr lows
* Europe stocks drop more than 1.5 pct as oil, miners
battered
* Wall Street recovers from earlier lows
* Dollar up vs commodity currencies, but down vs euro, yen
* U.S. Treasury yields little changed
(Updates prices to open of U.S. markets, recasts throughout,
changes byline, dateline, previous LONDON)
By Sam Forgione
NEW YORK, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Stock markets worldwide slipped
on Tuesday, weighed down by weak China trade figures, but
indexes were off their lows after oil prices steadied a bit
after falling within reach of a seven-year nadir.
Oil prices stabilized after plumbing lows last seen during
the financial crisis as an intensifying supply glut sparked
fears the world will run out of storage for crude. U.S. crude
hit $36.64 a barrel and Brent hit $39.81, their lowest levels
since February 2009, before rebounding.
Brent crude LCOc1 was last up 4 cents, at $40.77 a barrel,
while U.S. crude CLc1 was last up 29 cents at $37.94 per
barrel.
U.S. stocks pared losses after falling more than 1 percent
in morning trading, while European shares remained down nearly
1.5 percent. Oil majors Exxon (N:XOM) XOM.N and Chevron (N:CVX) CVX.N
recovered from session lows, while miner and energy producer
Freeport McMoRan FCX.N was last down over 5 percent.
"The fall in oil prices suggests weak demand globally and
has worried investors as they put together their outlook for the
coming year," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James
in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The concerns over a crude glut hit currencies of major oil
exporters, with the Canadian dollar and Norwegian crown hitting
decade-plus lows against the U.S. dollar. The dollar retreated
against the euro and yen, however.
The dollar index .DXY , which tracks the greenback versus a
basket of six currencies, was last down 0.12 percent, at 98.532.
"It's a perfect storm for commodity currencies," said Mazen
Issa, senior currency strategist at TD Securities in New York.
Data showed China's imports fell for the 13th consecutive
month, with an 8.7 percent decline in November compared with a
year earlier, intensifying concerns over the strength of the
world's second-biggest economy.
MSCI's all-country world equity index .MIWD00000PUS , which
tracks shares in 45 nations, was last down 0.8 percent, to
401.94.
The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was last down 0.43
percent, at 17,654.35. The S&P 500 .SPX was down 0.29 percent,
at 2,070.96. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC was up 0.06 percent,
at 5,104.96.
Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 was last down
1.52 percent at 1,441.81.
U.S. Treasury debt yields were little changed in choppy
trading. Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes US10YT=RR were last
up 1/32 in price to yield 2.22 percent, from a yield of 2.23
percent late on Monday.
Gold rose on the slight weakness in the dollar and decline
in European shares, though expectations that the U.S. Federal
Reserve would raise interest rates next week kept gains in
check. Spot gold prices XAU= rose $4.22 or 0.39 percent, to
$1,074.21 an ounce.
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Commodities performance http://link.reuters.com/rac73w
Currencies vs dollar http://link.reuters.com/tak27s
Commodities performance http://link.reuters.com/rac73w
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