The latest data confirmed the modest improvement in labor markets over the past two months. The US housing starts also surged in November, led by a sharp rebound in starts of single-family homes, the government reported on Thursday. Housing starts jumped 3.9% from October to an annual rate of 555,000 units, the Commerce Department said. Starts on private single-family homes were 6.9% on the month. The US stocks moved up considerably following these pointers and hit fresh two-year closing highs. The Dow added 41.78 points or 0.4% to close at 11,499.25.
Today, in keenly awaited news, the US House of congress approved a two-year across-the-board extension of Bush-era tax cuts. The bill, already passed by the Senate, now goes to President Barack Obama for signature. It also includes a 2% rollback of Social Security payroll taxes; extends unemployment insurance for 13 months; and brings back the estate tax at 35% for two years on estates of more than $5 million. The House vote was 277-148.
The Japanese stocks witnessed a choppy trading and moved lower during the course of the session as the uninspiring global sentiments kept a lid on the overall proceedings even as the Japan's government adopted a tax overhaul for the next fiscal year, promising a five-percentage-point cut to the corporate tax rate to spur business and investment. The plan is to be submitted to parliament to the clearance and traders preferred to ignore the possible support it could bring to the companies and refrained from buying. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index slipped slightly and ended at 10303.83, down 7.5 points or 0.07%.
The Australian stocks closed slightly weaker today as the Australian dollar nudged higher in rapidly thinning holiday-trade volumes. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index fell 20.9 points, or 0.44%, at 4763.1, which was also the low of the day.
In China, stocks fell for a third day on continued concern that the government will further tighten monetary policy to tame inflation and curb speculative demand for property. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said the government would continue to curb investment and speculative demand for property, and strengthen the regulations on the real estate market from next year through 2015. The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 4.4 points, or 0.2% to close at 2,893.74.
In other markets, South Korea's Seoul Composite added 0.85%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged higher by 0.20% while Taiwan's Taiex rose 0.41%. US dollar fell initially but then recorded swift gains on continued worries pertaining to the finances of the peripheral Euro zone economies. The European financial leaders failed to come up with measures that would soothe the growing turmoil in euro-zone sovereign debt markets.
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