* Crude steadies near 7-year lows, saps risk sentiment
* European markets sag, Wall Street set for subdued start
* Dollar climbs, euro falls, Swissie rises on steady SNB
* Kiwi, Aussie firm on RBNZ statement, Australia jobs report
* Sterling dips as Bank of England stays dovish
By Marc Jones
LONDON, Dec 10 (Reuters) - A fourth straight day of falls nudged stocks towards two-month lows on Thursday, as ricocheting commodity prices, a jumpy dollar and an extra helping of emerging market uncertainty made for a jittery global mood.
Oil prices, whose sharp decline has been a big driver of recent volatility, were fighting for their first rise of the week, but with so much else tumbling the so-called global "fear" gauge, the VIX .VIX , climbed to its highest in almost a month.
European shares .FTEU3 teetered on the brink of a third day of losses and it was touch and go whether Wall Street would make it a fourth day in a row as S&P 500 ESc1 and Dow 1YMc1 futures prices faded back to almost flat. .N
The dollar .DXY edged higher as traders, eyeing next week's expected increase in U.S. interest rates, took advantage of its dip over the last month. FRX/
That in turn took the wind out of the resurgent euro's EUR= sails, while the Swiss franc EURCHF= rose to a one-week high against the euro after the Swiss National Bank steered clear of any changes in its already deeply negative rates. ID:nL8N13Z1BR
"In general there is some excitement on where to position ahead of the Fed's meeting," Rabobank strategist Philip Marey said. "We also have crude prices which are doing some pretty amazing things at the moment and which are having an impact on the inflation outlook again."
Oil was slipping about all over the place again. Brent LCOc1 and U.S. WTI CLc1 crude rose and fell and rose again to fetch $40.44 and $37.33 a barrel respectively, not far from this week's seven-year lows. O/R
They found support after U.S. inventories USOILC=ECI fell for the first time in 11 weeks and a 20 percent jump in vehicle sales in China, the world's second-biggest oil user, boosted hopes of more demand in the coming months. ID:nB9N13W00G
Oil's stabilisation helped nudge U.S. government bond yields up, but in Europe two-year German yields touched their lowest levels since last week's ECB disappointment, a sign that investors are not ruling out further easing from Frankfurt.
Finland's ECB policymaker, Erkki Liikanen, fanned those hopes, saying the bank stood ready to take additional action if necessary. But one of the bank's main hawks, Yves Mersch, countered by saying that most ECB Governing Council members didn't want further stimulus. ID:nF9N13402V ID:nF9N13402T
SUBMERGING MARKETS
With focus already intense on what is expected to be the first rise in U.S. interest rates in almost a decade next week, traders were waiting on the final batch of weekly jobless claims before the decision plus a flurry of other economic data. ECONG7
Sterling fell after the Bank of England, one of the few other developed economy candidates to potentially raise rates next year, showed little sign of doing it any time soon at its final 2015 meeting. ID:nL8N13Z2R3
In Asia overnight, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS shed 0.1 percent.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 closed down 1.3 percent at a five-week low and Australian shares .AXJO ended down 0.8 percent.
Chinese shares also gave up early gains, with the CSI300 .CSI300 closing 0.35 percent in the red. Hong Kong, Indonesia and Korea all finished down too.
"The process of taking money off the table is likely to be driven by nervousness ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's moves next week, along with the soft oil price being viewed as a barometer of future economic activity," White Funds Management managing director, Angus Gluskie, said.
Emerging markets had a host of difficult news to deal with.
South Africa's rand ZAR= crumbled 1.7 percent to a new record low and the cost of insuring its debt against default hit its highest since early 2009 after President Jacob Zuma removed Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene from his position. ID:nL8N13Y4O6
Nene's dismissal comes on the heels of a credit rating downgrade to just one notch above junk by Fitch last Friday. South Africa's economy is barely growing and is being squeezed by lower commodity prices globally.
Concerns were also mounting for Brazil. Moody's put its credit rating on review for a possible downgrade to junk due to its a severe recession, failed austerity efforts and rising risks of political paralysis. ID:nL3N13Y52J
Emerging Asia currencies had the added pressure of another fall in China's yuan CNY=CFXS . It dropped 0.2 percent to 6.4411 per dollar, its weakest showing since Aug. 13 in the aftermath of China's unexpected devaluation.
The People's Bank of China set its daily guidance rate at its lowest in more than four years, adding to speculation that Beijing will leave the yuan to slide for a while.
"I'm not surprised that more weakening of CNY (yuan) is here," Nordea Markets senior analyst Amy Yuan Zhuang said.
Another notable mover was the Australian dollar, which soared after the latest jump in jobs numbers notched the strongest two-month total for 28 years and pushed unemployment to a 19-month low of 5.8 percent. ID:nL3N13X1PJ
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Global assets in 2015
http://link.reuters.com/dub25t Currencies vs dollar
http://link.reuters.com/tak27s Commodities performance
http://link.reuters.com/rac73w
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