Australia trade surplus declined 51% to A$1.45 billion in November from A$2.96 billion the previous month as exports declined 4% to A$26.9 billion in the period. Seasonally adjusted total dwelling units approved in November fell 12.8% from a month ago and 34.7% from a year earlier to 9,581.

U.S. Markets Reviews

Dow Jones Industrial Average edged lower by 27.24 or 0.31% to a close of 8,742.46, S&P 500 increased 3.08 or 0.34% to 1,507.34, and Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 17.95 or 1.12% to a close of 1,7617.01. In Toronto TSX Composite increased 100.26 or 1.10% to close at 9,221.58.

U.S. Stock Movers

Of the stocks in S&P 500 index, 190 declined, 304 increased and 6 were unchanged.

Manitowoc Company led decliners in the S&P 500 index followed by losses in Sun Microsystems of 8.3%, in Wal-Mart Stores of 7.5%, in Nasdaq OMX Group of 7.4%, in CIT Group Inc 7.2%, in Limited Brands of 6.5%, in Intuitive Surgical of 6.2%, in Lincoln National Corp of 5.4%.

Sears Holdings led the gainers in S&P 500 index with a rise of 23% followed by increase in Whole Foods Market of 22.3%, in GameStop of Corp of 13%, in MBIA Inc of 11.5% and in AK Steel Holdings of 11%.

Asian Markets Review

The Nikkei 225 Index in Tokyo closed lower 362.82 or 3.93% to 8,876.42, Hang Seng index in Hong Kong decreased 571.55 or 3.81% closed to 14,415.91 CSI 300 index in China lower 43.19 or 2.24% closed to 1,887.99. ASX 200 index in Australia decreased 85.40 or 2.26% to close 3,694.30. The KL Composite index in Malaysia lower 17.10 or 1.84% closed to 910.52.

The Kospi Index in South Korea decreased 22.47 or 1.83% to close at 1,205.70. SET index in Thailand closed higher 2.07 or 0.45% to 465.03 and JSE Index in Indonesia decreased 18.81 or 1.32% closed to 1,402.66. Markets of India were closed today.

Europe Markets Review

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 2.14 or 0.05% to 4,505.37, in Paris CAC 40 Index decreased 21.76 or 0.65% to close at 3,324.33 and in Frankfurt DAX index lower 57.56 or 1.17% to close at 4,879.91. In Zurich trading SMI decreased 10.62 or 0.18% to close at 5,751.07.

Commodities, Bonds and Currencies

Yields on 10-year bond declined to 2.45% and on 30-year bonds dropped to 2.99%.

The U.S. dollar declined to $1.37 to a euro and against the Japanese yen fell to 91.142 yen.

Immediate futures prices of Texas crude oil rose $0.41 to $42.41 a barrel, for natural gas increase 0.6 cents to $5.583 per mbtu and gasoline prices increased 0.93 cents to 109.75 cents a gallon.

Futures of corn increased 9.75 cent to $4.06, soybean increased 0.55 cents to $9.89, sugar increased 0.05 cents to 12.03 a pound and wheat rose 3.75 to $6.335 a bushel.

In metals trading, copper prices rose 0.05 cents to $1.48 per pound, gold increased $2.60 to $857.10 per ounce and silver decreased 2 cents to $11.09.