* Yen edges up as weak U.S. jobless data raises worry
* Shanghai stock index up 4.5 pct, FX impact fading
* Traders cautious on risk in holiday-thinned markets (Updates prices, adds data, comment, changes byline, dateline, previous LONDON)
By Steven C. Johnson
NEW YORK, Aug 20 (Reuters) - The yen edged up against the dollar on Thursday as a rise in the number of U.S. workers filing first-time jobless benefits stoked concern about the strength of an anticipated U.S. economic recovery.
Those worries dented earlier optimism that was fed by a sharp rise in the Shanghai Composite Index, which rose 4.5 percent Thursday after falling nearly the same amount the prior session.
The jobless claims report "is indicative that this is definitely not going to be a V-shaped recovery," said Kurt Karl chief U.S. economist at Swiss Re in New York.
"For a real recovery, we need the consumer to be in the game, but with rising unemployment, the consumer is not going to be out there spending."
The dollar slipped to 93.86 yen, a session low and down about 0.1 percent on the day. It clawed back modest losses against the euro after the U.S. data, with the euro last at $1.4228, unchanged on the day but off a session peak of $1.4256.
Summer holidays continued to thin the trading ranks, though, and analysts said there was not much conviction behind the moves.
Omer Esiner, senior market analyst at Travelex Global Business Payments in Washington, said the U.S. data should help the dollar regain its overnight losses. Investors tend to buy dollars and yen as safe havens when anxiety is on the rise.
"The report is negative for risk appetite," he said, "and supportive of the notion that the U.S. economy is likely to bounce along the bottom."
The euro also fell 0.2 percent to 133.68 yen while sterling was down 0.4 percent at $1.6479 after weak data on British public finances underscored concern about the country's fiscal situation, blunting the impact of strong retail sales numbers.
The Norwegian crown rose, hitting its highest level against the euro since March, after data showed Norway's non-oil economy grew 0.3 percent from April to June. Last week, Norges Bank hinted it may hike rates in early 2010.
U.S. stocks were pointing to a slightly lower opening, though European shares remained up about 1 percent after the surge in Chinese equities.
Market participants have been focusing on the Shanghai Composite Index, which in the two weeks to Wednesday had shed nearly 20 percent, rattling confidence in a global recovery.
"It is an understandable reaction as Chinese equities have acted as a good leading indicator for broader market dynamics over the past year," Lee Hardman, currency economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ wrote in a research note to clients.
But he said perceptions that China's economic recovery is essential to global recovery may be overdone, adding that world stock gains owe more to the flood of money central banks have pumped into their economies than from China's outlook.
(Additional reporting by Vivianne Rodrigues and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York and Naomi Tajitsu in London; Editing by Andrea Ricci)