BUSINESS

The Australian three-year bonds opened slightly weaker following release of strong US data overnight.

The Australian dollar has opened stronger this morning, keeping its head above USD1.0000 due to strong commodity price in very thin holiday trade.

U.S. stocks were slightly lower Thursday, trading in a tight range as a mixed bag of economic data left investors with little reason to make major position changes ahead of the holiday.

US new home sales rose by 5.5pct to a seasonally adjusted 290,000 unit annual pace.

Christmas has come early for Australian importers as the dollar continued to trade just below parity in local trade yesterday.

The Australian stock market ended the day on a high, as resource and financial stocks both rallied.

Local stocks closed at highs not seen since April today, underpinned by stronger commodity prices and takeover activity. In thin trade, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) rose 18.6pts or 0.4pct to finish at 4888.2.

High-end home prices in Australia declined by 7.5 percent in the six months to September says real estate researcher RP Data.

Australian companies appear to be concealing the more pertinent information when they file their annual business reports as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) observed on its review that corporate declarations are lacking in quality.

Specialist investment manager, AMP Capital Investors has bought a prime Sydney central business district space located at 50 Park Street specifically for its Select Property Portfolio No. 3 fund.

Australian-based OneSteel Ltd (ASX:OST) says it has met all regulatory conditions to buy the Moly-Cop and AltaSteel businesses from global mining group Anglo American.

Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) says it has completed a 100 per cent divestment of its equity holdings in US collier Cloud Peak Energy Inc. through a fully exercised over allotment in connection with a recently announced secondary offering.

Resource giant Rio Tinto Group (ASX: RIO) has agreed to buy Australian-listed coal miner Riversdale Mining Ltd (ASX: RIV) for A$16 a share, in a deal which values the target at around $3.9 billion.

Foster's Group Ltd (ASX:FGL) says its Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) and Carlsberg Group have extended a long-term exclusive licence to sell the Danish brewer's brands in Australia.

Local stocks are managing to hold on to six week highs, although trading volumes are light.

Giant telecommunication firm Telstra Corporation is writing down some $138 million in carrying value of its Octave business operation in China, which mainly deals on giving out technical services and providing phone content to mobile platforms.

Next week's release of $100 billion US Treasury bonds weighed on the Australian bond market as it opened weaker today.

The Australian dollar remains well supported despite further bad news out of Europe overnight.

U.S. stocks climbed to fresh two year highs Wednesday, led by financial companies as bank stocks continued to benefit from recent merger activity while the latest round of data pointed to a still recovering economy.

US existing home sales rose by 5.6pct in November to a 4.68 million annual pace - marking the highest reading since June.

The Australian Dollar continued to hold above the 99 cents mark yesterday in local trade despite there being no domestic data to drive direction.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered two San Francisco-based hedge funds and three former employees to pay $1.2 million for multiple antifraud violations.

Retail sales nationally are down on forecasts, and most retailers are doing worse than this time last year.

The Australian stock market closed marginally higher on low trading volumes after gains by mining giant BHP Billiton offset weaker performances by the banks.

Santos Ltd (ASX:STO) $200 million investment plan to drill three wells in the Bay of Bengal has received approval from the government of Bangladesh.

Local stocks managed to hold on to six month highs today and post a small win, thanks to strength from the miners.

The Property Council of Australia’s latest audit shows that local councils in Sydney are sitting on almost $560 million in unspent infrastructure levies.

The trade relationship of Australia and China continue to bear fruit as it registered an annual growth of 8.8 percent in 2010, en route to whopping trade value of $90 billion, according to the latest report of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Australia's biggest sugar milling company CSR Ltd has successfully completed the sale of Sucrogen to Singapore's Wilmar International for $A1.843 billion.