By Christopher Johnson
LONDON (Reuters) - Oil steadied on Thursday as a lower dollar and strong U.S. employment data balanced weak Japanese trade figures which sounded alarm bells over the prospects for global growth.
The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefit fell last week to the lowest level in eight weeks, suggesting the U.S. labour market was strong despite a tightening in financial market conditions.
The data came ahead of an announcement by the Federal Reserve due at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT), which could signal the first U.S. interest rate rise for a decade.
Economists saw about a one-in-four chance of a rate increase. The dollar eased ahead of the announcement.
North Sea Brent crude was down 15 cents at $49.60 a barrel by 1345 GMT, after hitting an early high of $50.14. U.S. light crude oil was up 20 cents at $47.35 a barrel.
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Both global benchmarks had rallied sharply over the last three days as the dollar weakened on expectations that the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve, would maintain interest rates at their current, very low, levels.
Traders said the employment data suggested the U.S. economy could be growing more quickly than expected.
"The big drop in U.S. weekly jobless claims is very supportive for the demand outlook," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York.
Asian data has been painting a much gloomier picture.
Japan's exports slowed for a second straight month in August in a sign China's economic slowdown could be damaging the world's third-biggest economy.
The Japanese figures follow worrying data from other Asian economies, including South Korea and Taiwan, increasing anxiety over the consequences of a sharp slowdown in China.
This week's rally has made a further sharp sell-off in oil less likely, said Robin Bieber, a technical analyst and director of London brokerage PVM Oil Associates.
"It's out of dump-danger at the moment," Bieber said.
U.S. oil output has begun to ease after six years of sharp increases. EIA data shows U.S. crude and condensate production peaked at 9.612 million barrels per day (bpd) in April and had declined by 316,000 bpd by June.
(Additional reporting by Henning Gloystein in Singapore; Editing by Dale Hudson and William Hardy)