OPENING CALL: The Australian share market is expected to open flat.
Initial jobless claims decreased by 13,000 in the week ended Dec. 21 to a seasonally adjusted 222,000, a level that remains consistent with a healthy labor market. Economists surveyed expected 220,000 new jobless claims.
Luxury jeweler Tiffany faced challenges during the holiday-shopping season in Hong Kong and Japan, but overall, its sales for the period increased.
Overnight Summary
Each Market in Focus
The S&P/ASX 200 was closed Thurday and will reopen Friday. With three sessions to close out 2019, the index is tracking toward its strongest year in a decade with a gain of 20% so far.
U.S. stocks pushed toward new records intraday as markets reopened after the Christmas holiday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 59 points, or 0.2%, in afternoon trading. The S&P 500 was up 0.4%, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.7%.
The S&P and the Nasdaq both hit intraday records, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq crossing the 9,000-point mark for the first time. All three indexes were on track to end the day at all-time closing highs.
Shares of Amazon.com gained 4%, putting the company on track to be the best performer in the S&P 500. The e-commerce giant said it had a record-breaking holiday season, with its Echo Dot speaker and the iRobot Roomba 675 Robot Vacuum among its top sellers.
Gold prices punched higher, keeping the precious metal elevated above the psychologically important $1,500 level and extending its win streak to a third session in a row.
Gold for February delivery on Comex rose 0.6% to $1,514.40 an ounce, according to FactSet data
West Texas Intermediate oil for February delivery added 57 cents, or 0.9%, to settle at $61.68 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
holiday trading, with the pair not reacting much to preliminary data showing Singapore’s industrial output slid 9.3% on year in November compared with a 3.6% increase in October.
Major stock markets in Europe were closed.
the last hour of trading.
Access +10,000 financial
instruments
