\n\tBy Greg Peel<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Dow rose 41 points or 0.4% while the S&P gained 0.6% to 1242 and the Nasdaq added 0.8%.<\/p>\n
\n\tA weaker than expected revenue report from economic bellwether FedEx had Wall Street off to a weak start last night until traders realised the company had actually increased its profit guidance. Then the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index came in with a rise to 24.3 to 22.5 when economists had expected a drop to 17.5 and a positive tone took hold.<\/p>\n
\n\tUS housing starts rose 3.9% in November but the annualised rate of 550,000 means starts are still down 5.8% on the same time last year. A slight drop in weekly new jobless claims was nevertheless well received.<\/p>\n
\n\tCurrency markets were quiet last night as EU members met in Brussels to discuss a permanent mechanism to tackle sovereign debt problems. The US dollar index fell slightly to 80.06 and the Aussie was slightly higher at US$0.9879. Gold, however, was hit by talk of more imposing futures trading limits and profit-taking was the order of the day as the year draws to a close, sending gold down US$10.80 to US$1370.20\/oz.<\/p>\n
\n\tBase metals were mostly slightly weaker and oil fell US26c to US$88.36\/bbl. Following its strong run in recent sessions, the ten-year bond yield fell 10 basis points to 3.44%.<\/p>\n
\n\tMostly it was a session of cautious optimism, without a lot of conviction or volume. Given the indices have all now pushed past the levels from which they fell when Lehman went down, there is a distinct lack of excitement despite the positive tone. Uncertainties such as European debt and a likely Chinese rate hike are keeping things subdued. With only a couple of weeks to go to year-end, there's very much an air of “winding down”.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe SPI Overnight rose 8 points or 0.2%. <\/p>\n
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