Australian Stock Market Report – Morning December 19, 2014

A screen displays news on the Dow Jones Industrial Average just after the opening bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange October 15, 2014. U.S. stocks opened sharply lower on Wednesday as economic data reinforced concerns about the health of the world economy and that corporate merger activity may be slowing. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid (UNITED STATES - Tags: BUSINESS)

* In US economic data, the Conference Board's Leading Economic Indicators Index rose by 0.6% in November after a similar lift in October. The index is up 6.1% on a year ago. The Philadelphia Fed Index fell from the outsized 40.8 gain in November to 24.5 in December. US jobless claims fell from 295,000 to 289,000 in the past week.

* European shares surged on Thursday after a rebound in Greek stocks. The leader of the main opposition party in Greece said he was committed to keeping Greece in the euro should his leftist party win power. The Athens ATG Index erased earlier losses to close up 1.5%. Energy stocks also benefited from a short lived rise in oil prices. The STOXX Europe 600 oil & gas index lifted by 2.7%. The FTSEurofirst 300 index rose by 3%, the German Dax also gained 2.8%, while the UK FTSE rose by 2%. In London trade shares in BHP Billiton gained 0.2% while Rio Tinto rose 0.4%.

* US sharemarkets rallied for the second straight session on Thursday. Upbeat results from Oracle (up 8%) in the prior session continued to support technology stocks. The S&P technology sector lifted 2.2%. With just over an hour of trade left, the Dow Jones was up by 294 points or 1.7%. The S&P 500 index was up by 1.6% and the Nasdaq gained 80 points or 1.7%.

* US treasuries fell on Thursday (yields higher) as traders continued to digest the commentary from the US Federal Reserve. The better economic data also supported yields. US 2 year yields rose by 2pts to 0.637% while US 10 year yields rose by 7pts to 2.211%.

* Major currencies fell against the greenback in European and US trade on Thursday. The Euro eased from highs of US$1.2445 to lows near US$1.2265, and was around US$1.2285 in late US trade. The Aussie dollar rose from lows near US81.20c to around US82.00 and traded near US81.55c in late trade. And the Japanese yen traded between 118.25 yen per US dollar to JPY119.30 and was near JPY118.75 in late US trade.

* World oil prices resumed its slide on Thursday a day after the short-covering rally. Traders continued to speculate on the ongoing lift in oil supply. Brent crude fell by US$1.68 or 2.7% to US$59.50 a barrel while the US Nymex crude price fell by US$2.36 or 4.2% to US$54.11 a barrel.

* Base metal prices fell on the London Metal Exchange on Thursday with the exception of Nickel (up 0.2%). Tin (down 1.8%) recorded the biggest declines followed by lead (down 1.1%). Other metals lost 0.5%-0.9%. Gold rose on Thursday with Comex gold futures up by US30c an ounce or to US$1,194.80 per ounce. Iron ore rose by US10c to US$68 a tonne on Thursday.

Ahead: In Australia and the US no economic data is released.

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